I may not have BG3 but I can still imagine

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We all know Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal was a mistake that should not have been. Even Bioware admitted that somewhere. What should have been was Baldur's Gate 2: Watcher's Keep (probably with a few more floors) followed by a proper Baldur's Gate 3: Throne of Bhaal. Everyone knows that. Alas, it will never be.

I've been thinking about how it could have been if it were to be (talk about tense abuse). In fact, been thinking on that quite a lot. The resultant pile of imagination is a lot like fanfiction, something I abhor normally, but since there's a whole lot of fan but no actual fiction I believe I am safe. Maybe fanful thinking could be a proper name for this sort of thing.

This imaginary BG3 would of course be done on Infinity Engine. A Fallout 3 kind of deal would be completely unacceptable. I'll be writing a huge amount of stuff down below, outlining what sort of game I imagine this BG3 would've been. And since there would have been no such thing as BG2:ToB in that universe, the imaginary BG3 players wouldn't know the existence and identities of the Five or any other spoily stuff, aside from what they saw at the end of BG2:SoA. Since I'm neither a writer, nor a designer, there won't be dialogues and quests and such here. Only wishful thinking meets fanfiction.

Without further ado, my imaginary Baldur's Gate 3: The Throne of Bhaal (warning: huuuuge text)

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Intro:
The Realms is in chaos. As the time of Aluando's propecy draws close, there's all manner of rumors and theories about Bhaalspawn and Bhaal's return. Bhaalspawn rumors seem to be everywhere, tales of deranged mass murderers and vile killers spread like wildfire. And the masses are afraid, which means torches and pitchforks. Strangers everywhere meet suspicion and hostility. Many unlucky travellers, street urchins and random people who just don't look like their fathers have been killed by mere whispers of "Bhaalspawn!" and since the only proof of Bhaalspawnism is disintegrating into golden dust after death, there's not much one can say to refute accusations. Bhaalspawn are on the roads en masse, fleeing persecution and oppression. Chaos really is sown in their passage.
Charname and Imoen are still chilling in Suldanessellar after Irenicus' defeat. Their other companions have moved on. But even elves who owe everything to a couple of Bhaalspawn aren't fully devoid of suspicion. Whispers are growing louder in the elven city. On that fateful day, Queen Ellesime sends for Charname.

Tutorial: (I shall be using "you" as indicating Charname, indicating the player)

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You start in your room at elven palace's guest quarters. Imoen is next door. A brief chat shows she's very very happy here in Suldanessellar. It's beautiful, elves are helping her both magic and thievery training, peace, tranquility, good food, etc. On the way to Queen, you meet various elves that ask trivial things of you: take this, go there, talk to that, kill some sort of vermin. When you finally meet Queen, she says she's received a message today about you. Or rather a threat. She has found a note in her own bedroom, stating Charname and Imoen are gonna be attacked and killed five days from today and if they're still in Suldanessellar, a lot of elves will end up as collateral damage. Neither she, nor anyone else has any idea who put that note there or how. So since these are the same dumbasses who thought exiling Irenicus was a solution, they're kicking you and Imoen out.

You take the bad news to Imoen, who has just received a letter as well. It says that the Tethyrian city of Saradush has become a safe haven for Bhaalspawn under the benevolent rule of Gromnir Ilkhan. Gromnir is a Bhaalspawn himself and he allows all Bhaalspawn who can reach Saradush to live there free from persecution and oppression. Letter is from someone named Melissan, apparently one of the biggest believers of the "Bhaalspawn are people too!" cause. Imoen likes the sound of it and wants to check that out. And off you go.

Chapter 1: This BG3 has a worldmap kinda like BG1's. There are many many areas you can explore and will actually have to pass those maps to reach Saradush and other places you'll want to reach, since Imoen (or you if applicable) never got around to reading a teleport scroll. You'll also have a camp/room/etc wherever you go, allowing you to keep all party members around (because that's a positive improvement in CRPGs since the time of Baldur's Gate).

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You and Imoen are being "escorted" by some elf party members in the forest. You're almost out of elven territory. But you're attacked by a bunch of bounty hunters who seem to be expecting you. Cue easy warm up battle. Elves are not amused to see hostiles in their territory. Their unamusement turns to anger when you reach an elven checkpoint close to where they'll leave you, because it has been overrun by more baddies. They call themselves Black Reavers and have killed the elves manning the place. Bigger battle. Finally you meet an archer woman named Illasera. She shows that she means business by easily killing one of your escorts. Then there's an escape sequence in the forest where you, Imoen and remaining elves are pursued by neverending enemies coming after you. Spending too much time killing them and not moving forward results in Illasera coming in and shooting an elf dead. Chase goes on for a couple of maps and at the end of it, Illasera kills the surviving elves too to further cement her status as a boss.

Soon as you reach third map, another woman who instantly recognizes you as Gorion's wards greets you. She is Melissan. She'll help you escape Illasera and her Black Reavers, who are notorious Bhaalspawn hunters. She was on her way to Suldanessellar to meet you two anyway when she noticed the huge Black Reaver force and has been trailing them since. Now that you managed to break through, escape is possible. Then she disguises three of you as Black Reavers and you walk through the map crawling with more Black Reavers.

Once you're clear, you can talk to Melissan. She'll talk about the chaos in Realms, trouble Bhaalspawns face everywhere, how she's doing her best to champion the "Bhaalspawn are people too!" cause, notorious Bhaalspawn hunter Illasera and her army of bounty hunters, Gromnir and his wisdom and strength, Saradush... She's a bard. She's also miss exposition, so there's a lot she'll talk about. She wants you to go to Saradush and help Gromnir make it safe for Bhaalspawn.

She always has places to go, people to see, so she leaves. You and Imoen pass thru some maps on your way to Saradush. One of those is a town where you'll pick up more party members (whom I'll be leaving blank), meet some NPCs, get small sidequests plus a big one which will take you to a dungeon romp. You also see first hand the effect Bhaalspawn business has on common folk (it ain't pretty). The sidequest will (of course) make you save the whole town from some disaster or other. But upon returning you'll find that Illasera is in town, with a lot of Reavers. A number of townspeople will be on their side against the evil Bhaalspawn (town's resident clerics and paladin who gave small sidequests, most of militia, the ex-mercenary barkeep, etc.) and a big battle ensues. Illasera is hideously powerful for you to handle but she will teleport away if you wound her a bit or kill all of her cronies. Afterwards, whole town turns against you on account of you slaughering a lot of their neighbors but they're not stupid enough to attack. It's clear you're not wanted here though.

After more encounters with Illasera (she always ports away when wounded a little bit) and Black Reaver groups on various maps, you finally reach Saradush outskirts. Illasera is there to face you of course, and since she can't get to you in Saradush, she'll play for keeps this time. Cue boss battle. Illasera is a slippery one. She blinks to hard to reach places and shoots while you're fighting her neverending Reavers. The map has lots of pits and cliffs for her to snipe at you. She always ports to somewhere else as soon as anyone gets close to her. She has seemingly infinite healing potions (she likely hoarded them while she was leveling up). You have to reach the city gates and then survive there for a time till gates open and Gromnir's soldiers come out to help you. When they come, a final wave of Black Reavers will come as well for the final showdown of Chapter 1. Illasera will keep gulping down potions and only port away once she's near death or all of her Reavers are dead. Entering Saradush starts Chapter 2.

Chapter 2: Saradush is the big city of this BG3, like Amn or the titular Baldur's Gate. New party members, returning party members, more sidequests, more important NPCs, shops... You name it, Saradush has it.

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The common folk still hates and fears Bhaalspawn but Gromnir's soldiers are everywhere, making sure no one is ever oppressing them. No one seems to protect the commoners with that zeal, but at least they haven't been subjugated. You meet a lot of Bhaalspawn, the most important of all is obviously Gromnir Ilkhan. He has heard of your exploits up north and wants to meet you.

Gromnir is a rather charismatic human general who got pissed at the treatment Bhaalspawn was receiving lately and decided to do something about it. He's a vassal of Tethyrian crown and has more or less occupied the city with his fanatically loyal army and turned it into a place where no one can mess with Bhaalspawn. Except seemingly other Bhaalspawn. Gromnir is having various troubles and he'd like your help in fixing them. There's a cabal of Bhaalspawn who want to overthrow him and take Saradush for themselves. There's hidden Black Reaver sympathizers. There's the occasional Bhaalspawn who's just stupid evil and need to be put down like rabid dogs... Gromnir has a list of quests that you'll be asked to do in and around Saradush. Then there's Gromnir's various lieutenants (some Bhaalspawn themselves, some ordinary human/elf/hobgoblin/etc) and paper pushers who all have stuff that they're dying to pay someone to do on their behalf.

All in all, Chapter 2 is a huge chapter with much to do. Main story follows your efforts to help Gromnir stabilize Saradush and weed out the unacceptably evil Bhaalspawn. Sidequests are plentiful. Melissan will appear after a number of main story quests bringing dire news. A new Bhaalspawn leading an army has appeared and is coming to attack Saradush. This would be conqueror is named Yaga Shura and he's a half orc. He's quite determined to kill all other Bhaalspawn and is promising to leave everyone else unharmed if they only hand over every last Bhaalspawn to him. Gromnir is not amused. But once Yaga Shura's offer becomes known to populace at large Gromnir has an almost rebellion of commoners on his hands (they're still quite heavily outnumbering Bhaalspawn refugees and Gromnir's army). Tensions are high but with the impending battle, no one wants to start brawling in the streets. Obviously, you are the best candidate to fix this mess since Gromnir and his people will be busy preparing to defend the city. And so you go chasing clues and talking to loud complainers. It's an investigation and talk heavy quest that leads you to a hidden group of agitators and infiltrators who are revealed to be Black Reavers. Cue battle.

The city cools down once instigators are dead and Gromnir's army can focus on defense. Melissan has left Saradush again as Gromnir's official envoy to visit various groups and organizations asking for aid and Gromnir himself is busy with war plans. But now Gromnir's lieutenants have some stuff for you to do that'll strengthen Saradush against the invaders. Cue sidequesting. After you do most of siege preparation quests, Gromnir will have bad news for you. Melissan has been caught by Black Reavers when she left Saradush. So no help of any kind is coming. More, he wants her saved. And he knows where Black Reavers' HQ is. You are probably itching to finally get back at Illasera and you've probably grown strong enough to defeat her now. Gromnir has you teleported to Black Reaver base, which is a large underground base with lots of epic battles and traps and whatnot. It's also very far away from Saradush, so you are given a gizmo that will teleport you back.

Here you'll learn that Reavers are an organization larger than it appears who seem dedicated to killing or at least making life miserable to Bhaalspawn. Those mass murder rumors? Their work. Big disasters that were blamed on Bhaalspawn? It was them. High profile Bhaalspawn assasinations? Who else. Their whole purpose of existence is to pile misery upon Bhaalspawn. And Illasera worship. This last part is secret, even their grunts don't know that. It turns out she is a Bhaalspawn too. The highest ring of Reaver leadership are her loyal minions and they worship her as the next Lady of Murder. Illasera is basically a Sarevok who succeeded. The whole purpose behind Reavers was destroying all Bhaalspawn but Illasera. Once she's the only Bhaalspawn left, she'll ascend to godhood and her loyal minions shall be rewarded eternally. Or so they believe.

Chapter 2 ends with an epic battle against the Black Reaver leaders: Illasera's loyal worshippers. There may be many more Black Reavers elsewhere, but the organization's power is broken. However, Melissan is nowhere to be found. So you walk out of the compound. Illasera is waiting for you just outside.

Chapter 3:

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This chapter starts with a big chat with Illasera that contains more startling revelations: Gromnir is evil and he and Yaga Shura are Illasera's partners in crime. Their whole plan from the start was to gather all Bhaalspawn in one place where they can all be killed in a single stroke. Illasera fanned the flames of chaos, forcing Bhaalspawn into the open. Gromnir pretended to create a safe haven that was certain to draw them all. And Yaga Shura built an army to do the dirty deed. All three of them intended to turn on each other in the end, of course, which is how you managed to get here. Gromnir has outmaneuvered Illasera, Reavers never attacked Melissan. The gizmo that's supposed to take you back to Saradush doesn't work, which does prove her story. The siege preparations you helped with? They were actually weakening Saradush. Yaga Shura's army is large and they already know Saradush's defenses, plus Gromnir's men will all but open the doors to them. City is doomed. By the time you'd reach it, it'd be almost over. What Gromnir doesn't know is that Illasera persuaded Yaga Shura to kill Gromnir himself as well, not that it took much persuading. That's exactly what Yaga was already planning to do. Even if Gromnir manages to escape, he'll still lose virtually all of his army. Thanks to you, however, now Illasera has lost her power base too and will be easy prey to Yaga Shura. Another important bit of info is that Yaga Shura is invincible. Neither weapons nor magic can harm him. Therefore she has an offer you can't refuse.

Join forces with Illasera against Yaga Shura. If you agree, she'll show you where Yaga Shura's fortress is and also help you once you get inside. It is rumored that Yaga Shura's mother is a powerful witch who somehow warded her son against all harm. And Yaga showed his gratitude by imprisoning her so none can learn the details of this protection. Illasera hopes there'll be something in Yaga's fortress that'll help you defeat him.

But if you refuse Illasera's offer she'll just curse you and port away (but of course you'll still end up at Yaga's fortress). Now you'll have to go back to Saradush the long way. It takes a long time. When you finally reach Saradush, it has indeed fallen. City is burning and the bulk of Yaga Shura's army is busy pillaging the wrecked remains of Saradush. Yaga Shura himself is camped outside the city with a small part of his army. A patrol of Yaga Shura soldiers notice you once you get close to the city. Their commander is a familiar face: Korgan Bloodaxe. He has joined up with Yaga Shura and business is business. On Korgan's body you'll find the location of Yaga Shura's home base. Saradush's remains are inaccesible. You can simply leave then or attack Yaga's camp and have an epic battle against the battalion stationed there. But if you keep pushing towards Yaga Shura's commanding tent, you'll meet him. He's not amused. And he's as invincible as you were warned, and you'll have to retreat or die.

Yaga Shura's fortress is, as can be expected, a huge dungeon crawl. It's a lot bigger than Illasera's base and makes up the major portion of Chapter 3. There's all manner of battles and traps and backtracking to open up new sections with gizmos found in other sections. It's crawling with orcs and goblinoids and mercenaries of all races under Yaga Shura's banner. The ultimate target is the maximum security cell where Yaga's mother is supposed to be imprisoned. If you've accepted Illasera's offer, she'll be with you. Not actively joining your party, but occasionally she'll pop in and tell you how to proceed and will unlock new sections and let you bypass the hardest battles and puzzles. If she's not with you, you'll be doing everything on your own.

Finally you'll reach the aforementioned "cell" where Yaga's mother is. The cell is actually a large underground chamber, quite richly furnished and rather comfy. If Illasera is with you, you'll go inside together. If you'd refused her offer, she'd have followed your footsteps and will come inside the room. She's a thief/ranger/sneaky archer type after all. Yaga Shura's mother a crazy old orc. She knows what brought you here and is willing to tell you how his son's invincibility can be removed. But she'll tell the secret of Yaga Shura's invincibility to only one Bhaalspawn, her price is your or Illasera's death. Illasera is very willing to turn on you on the spot, confident in her ability to escape if she can't kill you. Cue battle. Illasera fights as before, but this small map doesn't have convenient sniping positions for her and you've grown quite a bit stronger, so it's heavily one sided (Illasera didn't think you could've gained so many levels in Chapters 2 and 3). Once she's heavily wounded she throws a hissy fit saying how she'll be back and she'll get you and your little dog too but her ranting is cut short by the orc witch. She activates the built in antimagic field of the chamber, trapping Illasera. You and your party lose all your magic abilities too but this move makes Illasera a sitting duck. She dies like a punk. Orc witch is amused.

Afterwards, she tells you that she tore off her son's heart and turned it into an invincibility mcguffin. She explains how the ward can be broken. But she won't tell you where the heart is. The rumors were untrue, Yaga didn't imprison her. She'd chosen to stay here isolated from the world. And she's still a mother and won't let you kill her son. She has kept her promise and told you the secret of Yaga's invincibility but she never promised to tell you where his heart was. Also she's far from helpless in this chamber. Cue the real boss battle of Chapter 3. The chamber has a lot of tricks, antimagic field is just the beginning. Barriers, summons, puzzles... It's a long and tough battle, fitting for a chapter end.

Chapter 4:

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This one starts on a lighter note, as you find a messenger from Yaga Shura, utterly dumbstruck at the destruction you've wrought upon Yaga's home base. He has an important letter to the old witch. You read that Saradush has fallen and the Plan worked. The Bhaalspawn who are still alive can be counted on one hand now. Or maybe two. Yaga Shura has had every single person inside the walls killed, except for Gromnir. Apparently, Gromnir was expecting Yaga to betray him and he had prepared his forces to strike at Yaga Shura himself. They managed to reach Yaga thanks to Gromnir's "accursed mind powers" and while Gromnir's men died to the last fighting Yaga (there's a bit here about the attack you launched on his camp making it easy for Gromnir to succeed if you have done that in previous chapter), he managed to wrest the location of the heart from Yaga's mind, again with the aforementioned powers. Yaga Shura praises her mother's cunning in never letting Yaga learn the details of his invincibility himself and wants to know if Gromnir can do something if he gets the heart. Sadly for you, he's smart enough to not write where the heart is.

When you leave the fortress, you meet another familiar face: Elminster (because let's face it, it can't be an epic level game set in Forgotten Realms without El making an apperance). He tells you that you are now known as a traitor who sold out Saradush to Yaga Shura, thanks to Yaga Shura (who's telling everyone within earshot that he owes his conquest to you), Gromnir (who was a vassal of Tethyr crown as the ruler of Saradush, he's now at Tethyr's capital claiming you betrayed him and his city) and Melissan's (who believes everything Gromnir says) combined efforts. You are wanted by pretty much every government around the Realms, a gigantic reward on your head, no ruler likes people who hand large cities over to petty warlords like Yaga Shura. Your only hope of clearing your name would be persuading Melissan that you're innocent. Melissan, the well known spokeswoman of "Bhaalspawn are people too!", is the only person who can appeal to Tethyr (and other kingdoms if needed) in your defense who would be taken seriously. El tells you that you can find Melissan in the small Tethyrian town of Amkethran. So off you go.

Amkethran is a small town built around a monk monastery. The head of Amkethran monks is a man named Balthazar and he's ruling the place with an iron fist. His monks are all well trained warriors and they do whatever they want in town. Citizens are quite oppressed. There's the odd sidequest to be found, dealing with monks and miscellenous troubles of townsfolk. But the main focus is Melissan, who's staying at the inn. She's very angry at you. She won't even look at your proof against Gromnir before you prove that you're not evil incarnate. Luckily there's a way for that. This small town is in bad shape under Balthazar's iron fist. Being stupid good, Melissan can't pass by these poor people's plight. You can't go slaughtering the monks en masse either, monastery is the whole point of the town's existence. If you remove Balthazar from power without bloodshed, she might be persuaded to listen to your excuses. Easier said than done.

When you demand an audience with Balthazar he sees you. He's pretty impolite and has no intention of making life less miserable for the town. Unless you'll challenge him for the leadership of Amkethran monastery. He makes it clear that he'd rather die than change his mind and if you attack him, whole monastery will attack you too. Cue epic battle. Which also means you'll fail to convince Melissan that you're not evil, which will mean her leaving town and you not getting her phone number (see below) and you randomly being attacked by very powerful bounty hunters for the rest of the game.

If you do accept Balthazar's challenge, it's solo adventure time for you. You'll have to navigate a huge maze under monastery with lots of traps and puzzles. This is the main part of chapter 4. There'll be a few "sacred fountains" or some other gizmo down there which will fully heal and restore you after very tough battles. Successfully surviving the maze will mean you're worthy of challenging Balthazar to single combat. He's a max level monk (with a few extra tricks up his robe) and you'll be going up against him solo. He also will not take losing kindly and sic all his monks on your party and retreat, so you'll still end up slaughtering the whole monastery. There'll be a final battle with Balthazar and his highest level students. Upon death, Balthazar surprisingly disintegrates into golden dust. In the end, town is doomed to die. But you did your best and now that Melissan is willing to listen to you, you can convince her that Gromnir was in cahoots with Yaga Shura. She still doesn't trust you, but there was some time between fall of Saradush and Gromnir appearing in Tethyr's capital when no one knows where Gromnir was or what he was doing. And she tells you where Gromnir is at the moment, which is at the head of a large contingent of Tethyrian army. You also get a gizmo that'll allow you to talk to her anytime. From that point on, you can always call Melissan and ask for advice/talk about recent events. She can also call you at a plot critical moment.

If you failed to persuade Melissan that you're not responsible for Saradush's fall, you'll be met by an envoy from Yaga Shura. You'll learn that Gromnir is now leading a large Tethyrian army against Yaga's army. Yaga flat out tells you to come where the two armies will meet. He makes it clear that both armies will be against you and he's hoping that you'll die in crossfire.

Chapter 4 ends either way when you leave Amkethran.

Chapter 5:

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This chapter will change depending on Melissan's opinion of you.

If she's told you where Gromnir is, you'll find him at the head of a mass of Tethyrian troops. Luckily he wants to talk to you. Refusing to talk will make whole army attack you (which is bad). Otherwise they take you to him. He has Yaga Shura's heart but doesn't know how to remove his invincibility. He'll demand that you tell him. If you do he has no further use for you and orders you killed. If you don't, he'll order his troops to kill you. Unbeknownst to him, Melissan's gizmo was allowing her to show the whole conversation to Tethyr's monarch (whoever that'd be in FR lore) who promptly has a magical message sent to army's second in command to arrest Gromnir. Cue disappointing battle where Gromnir gets whacked easily and surrenders. He's taken away and you perform the ritual to remove Yaga Shura's invincibility. Then Tethyrian troops will march alongside you to ruins of Saradush where Yaga's army is still camped. Cue immensely epic battle where two armies fight and you make your way through elite Yaga troops infested ruins of Saradush to Yaga Shura himself (who's staying at the wreckage of Gromnir's palace). He's an extremely powerful fighter but not invincible, and he'll surrender in the end than die. Tethyrian army is victorious and there's much rejoicing, followed by a public interrogation and execution prepared for Gromnir and Yaga Shura. But as the interrogation is about to start, Gromnir suddenly paralyzes everyone close to him with his psionics and tries to escape. As you were clued before, he has immense psionic powers. Cue a much more satisfying Gromnir battle, where he dominates some Tethyrians and sics them on you. But after a while, a woman teleports in. Or rather hundreds of women teleport in. They're all identical. They're also all epic level mages and rain horrible spells upon the Tethyrian army in the biggest display of cutscene power in the series. Everyone, including Gromnir and Yaga Shura, is obliterated within seconds and only your party is left alive.

If you failed to persuade Melissan to ally with you in Chapter 4, you'll have nowhere else to go but the battlefield where Gromnir and Yaga Shura's armies will battle. Cue immensely epic battle where everyone is against you. Both armies will respawn endlessly on the huge battlefield map and you'll have to push towards Tethyrian army's center where Gromnir awaits. There's no other option because Yaga Shura is invincible. Epic battle within epic battle with Gromnir, where he'll unleash his mental powers on your party (he has immense psionic powers, in addition to being a hideously powerful fighter). He goes down in a battle worthy of a chapter endboss and on his body you'll find Yaga Shura's heart. Soon as you perform the ritual that makes Yaga Shura mortal, a woman teleports into the tent. Her name is Sendai, she's been watching you with interest and there's hundreds of other Sendais outside. And they're all epic level mages who proceed to rain death and destruction upon everyone in the biggest display of cutscene power in the series.

Whether Melissan is on your side or not, Sendai will cement her position as the biggest baddie seen yet by mass destruction. She's a Bhaalspawn, one of the two other "partners" of Illasera, Gromnir, Yaga Shura trio. The other one is named Abazigal. The Five had "allied" in secret to destroy all other Bhaalspawn, but Sendai and Abazigal are both incredibly powerful and thought of the other three as useful pawns and not actual rivals. Now that they'd outlived their usefulness, they were destroyed (Tethyrians were destroyed because she didn't want her existence to be known far and wide, which was certain to happen if she allowed the interrogation to start). Sendai tells you where Abazigal can be found and says that you should attack him. Now that there's only three Bhaalspawn left (four if you count Imoen, who Sendai dismisses as a simple minion of yours), ascension is close. Although she believes Abazigal will kill you, that could weaken him enough to provide Sendai an opening. And if by some miracle you manage to defeat Abazigal, Sendai might even tell you where her own base is. And whoever wins the battle between Abazigal and Sendai will surely hunt you down if you do nothing. So there's really no choice but to go to Abazigal's lair. Off you go. (Calling Melissan at this point will lead to a long chat where she encourages you to be proactive. She's also busy doing her best to clear your name in the Realms. If Melissan is not on your side, the loss of Tethyrian army will also be blamed on you and you'll get a couple of encounters with bounty hunter groups when travelling to Abazigal's lair who are incredibly numerous and high level on account of the unbelievable 1000000 gold reward on your head).

Chapter 6:

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Ugly, reptilian faced and blue skinned Abazigal is waiting for you right at the huge entrance of his lair. He knew you were coming. He's prepared. He attacks you by himself. He's a max level fighter carrying more magical items than Jarlaxle, including an endless amount of scrolls, wands and potions. But he's actually a half blue dragon human, who will change into a full blue dragon after taking an ungodly amount of damage that drops him to merely "wounded". His dragon form is at full health and loaded with even more magical items: wearing a plate armor, a crown on his head, rings on his talons, bracers on his legs, an asteroid belt of ioun stones orbiting him... A pimped out dragon, so to speak. Needless to say, he's endboss material. Game flat out tells you there isn't the slightest chance of your party killing him in battle. Luckily he doesn't attack after turning into a dragon, opting to gloat and make fun of your feeble attempts at fighting him. You have no choice but to go back to map entrance, where a kobold is waiting to talk to you.

This kobold is one of the many slave tribes of kobolds who serve the dragons. Yes, dragons. There's another dragon calling herself Draconis here and she's Abazigal's mother. She's an ancient great wyrm who dedicated millenias of her life creating magic items. Kobold makes it clear that this Draconis is even more powerful than Abazigal, and then asks you to kill her so they may be free. There are swarms of kobolds (and lizardlike critters of all kinds that serve the dragons) here and kobold tunnels are everywhere. And the reason this kobold thinks you have a chance to kill Draconis is that she's almost always in her gigantic workshop cave which has an unbreakable antimagic field. He'll show you their tunnels and lead you to Draconis. (If you can, calling Melissan at this point will make her remind you that a slim chance is better than none and she doesn't think a dragon as twinked out as Abazigal can be defeated). Only problem is, kobolds are small. So are their tunnels. Your party will have to magically shrink, which will make them deal less and take more damage, thereby making all manner of monsters inside dragons' lair a lot more dangerous (and able to pose serious threat to an epic party) till you reach the workshop. You'll have to agree, of course.

Cue a maze followed by the big dragon lair, where all enemy critters that'd normally be fodder for a party of your level pose real challenge (and you're as big as kobolds). When you finally reach the workshop, the spell keeping you small dissipates. Workshop is huge, filled with all manner of incredible magical treasures and Draconis is here, working. Thanks to the antimagic field, Draconis' magic that'd normally squash you flat is useless. She's attacks furiously and Abazigal also comes in within a few minutes for a double dragon tag team. No magic of any kind works, except potions. Luckily, antimagic field makes Abazigal managable too. If Abazigal is heavily wounded, Draconis tells him to go seize his destiny and she stays to fight till death. If Draconis is killed and Abazigal is here, he'll vow to resurrect her once he's a god and leaves. Either way, you get to pillage Draconis' workshop for incredibly powerful magic items. You also find a special display with four pedestals tagged with names of the others of "Five" bearing an item of some sort and some short notes.

Illasera, Draconis' Arrows of Entrapment: One shot and this cowardly little rat won't be running anymore. (dispel+paralyze arrow)
Gromnir, Draconis' Helmet of Mental Superiority: Not that his tiny brain would be able to effect a draconian mind, but better safe than sorry. (immunity to psionics)
Yaga Shura, Draconis' Vial of Degenerative Diarrhea: This ape's skin may be strangely immune to weapons and spells, but I doubt his entrails are so warded. (schmuck bait potion that'll horribly and permenantly kill whoever drinks it)
Sendai, Draconis' Explosive Concentrated Divination Essence: Her projected images of her simulacrums' projected images is cheesy to say the least. But this will fix that, assuming we can actually get this into her little hideout. (quest item)

You'll learn that Sendai is an extremely epic mage specializing in illusions and she hides in a "pocket plane" and sends out her simulacrums and projected images to do anything. Her modified Projected Image and Simulacrum spells create only a slightly less powerful version of her original self, unlike ordinary versions of those spells. And then both of those images are mages powerful enough to cast those spells themselves. And so are the second generation images. And third. And so on and so forth. All in all, Draconis guesstimates there's at least 200 Sendais at any one time, and that number can go as high as 4000 on any given day, all of whom would be epic or near epic level mages before the images become incapable of creating more images. Draconis calls this cheesy for some reason.

Once you leave dragon lair, Melissan will either call you, or be waiting for you if you didn't gain her support (which you now have, along with her "phone", now that Gromnir is dead, Melissan's mind is cleared of his influence). She's discovered the location of the entrance to Sendai's pocket plane, courtesy of Abazigal. Abazigal himself is hiding, waiting for the result of your confrontation with Sendai. So you go forth.

INTERLUDE:

Spoiler

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During the game, Imoen will have a romance with someone in the party. No reason why the player character must always be the one who gets the action. Their relationship will be affected by your treatment of both of them. If you've been against this, they'll stick together despite you and you'll have had camp drama for the better part of the game. But if you've been supportive (or indifferent) of this affair, they'll have engaged somewhere along the way and are now interested in getting something resembling a normal life. You can either let them go now (things are getting hotter and you don't want Imoen endangered/you don't want people with you who're more loyal to each other than you/you'd respect their decision/etc) or you can keep them (Imoen is also a target for baddies/you don't wanna be seperated from Imoen/the guy is a douche and you'd rather keep an eye on him/etc). If they leave, they'll ask Melissan's help to find someplace safe, who's very happy for them. If you keep them, nothing happens for now.

Chapter 7:

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You reach the entrance to Sendai's plane, which is in the middle of nowhere. But Sendai is waiting for you. Or at least a Sendai is waiting. Cue battle. In this chapter, almost every enemy you face will be Sendai. During battle, more, weaker Sendais come pouring through the portal. After defeating these Sendais, you enter the pocket plane. It turns out that Draconis' guesstimate was right and thousands of Sendais are there, ready to reduce you to ash. But you activate Draconis' divination bomb and almost all images are dispelled. Maybe a few dozen Sendais are left, who promptly scatter. The pocket plane is a dungeon, smaller than other Bhaalspawn lairs but unlike previous dungeons, it's made up of illusions shaped by Sendai's will and inhabited entirely by epic level mage enemies who use every cheap and dirty trick there is in the book. Plane is half palace, half maze, half laboratory, with all manner of traps and illusions. After many tough battles, you finally reach Sendai's throne room. She's not amused. Even if you can beat her, you can't stop her. There'll be thousands of Sendais again as soon as she can rest a few hours. Cue epic battle with Sendai. She employs all the magic tricks her images used, and then some. It's the longest battle in the game, with a lot of phases (with illusions and more illusions). Battle is over when you actually manage to reach Sendai herself. She employs a very simple final trick, namely dismissing the pocket plane, which dumps all of you back to where the entrance to pocket plane was. But she's quite surprised to see that Abazigal is waiting for you there. She's even more surprised to have her head bitten off. Abazigal is amused. The prospect of destroying his last rival amuses him even more but before he can do that, your party is mysteriously whisked away.

Chapter 8:

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The final chapter opens with your party mysteriously appearing in some weird void. Soon the mystery is solved as you're approached by none other than Cyric, the god of more or less everything bad ever. He admits to being entertained by being an honest to Ao deus ex machina. You're saved from Abazigal because Cyric doesn't want him becoming the new lord of murder without at least trying to stop it. He has an offer for you. Since you're under his protection at this moment, Abazigal can't get to you and is instead going to the titular Throne of Bhaal, where the ascension will take place. Since you have no way to reach it on your own, Cyric is willing to help you. You just have to promise to not ascend to godhood if you defeat Abazigal. Cyric believes Abazigal will kill you too (it's a running gag by now), but there's no way he could convince Abazigal to not ascend so he has to gamble. He can't directly help you kill Abazigal either. He also says taking Bhaal's evil power would either turn you into an evil god (assuming you're good aligned) or be posessed by Bhaal's "soul" and lose yourself (if you're evil aligned) so it'd be in your best interests as well. If you agree to take his offer, you'll have to swear an oath and Cyric will send you to Throne of Bhaal. But if you refuse his offer, then he has no other way of stopping Abazigal's ascension and will instead help him kill you in Throne of Bhaal, because **** you. He'll let you think on it for a bit. You might talk to your party members about it (their opinions are quite divergent) or call Melissan for advice (she says your chances of defeating Abazigal is already slim and it'll get much worse if Cyric aids him out of spite; however trusting the god of strife, lies, murder and such isn't a smart move either. She also gives you a rousing NG aligned speech).

If you agree to Cyric's offer, he'll simply take you to Throne of Bhaal. If you refuse, he'll get angry and leave you trapped in this void and you'll have to fight your way out through a lot of demons, devils, Cyric worshippers and miscellenous servants of Cyric. Once you free yourself from Cyric's domain, you'll realize that you can actually go to Throne of Bhaal by your own Bhaalspawn powers. Seems the god of lies lied to you, imagine that. Then you take your party to Throne of Bhaal. Upon reaching Throne of Bhaal, you're welcomed by an imp named Cespenar. He was charged with keeping the place tidy in master's absence. He spent the last decades sweeping up fragments from broken statues and dusting the intact statues of Bhaalspawn in the "Well of Statues" (remember the end of BG). But now that there's only 2 (3 if Imoen is with you) statues left, things are well and he might just get a holiday soon. Cespenar tells you Abazigal is in the Well of Statues waiting for you and wishes you luck. You leave the small room you're in (which turns out to be a room hidden behind your own statue's alcove in the Well of Statues) and see the Well we last saw after Sarevok's demise. Cutscene shows that all other alcoves are empty except Abazigal's (and Imoen's if she's with you). Abazigal himself is at the bottom of the huge well, in humanoid form.

If you'd refused Cyric's offer, he has helpers. Abazigal himself is the most powerful of the Five and the toadies Cyric sent, who would be a boss battle on their own anywhere else, are mere punching bags compared to him. Cue epicest of all battles against the single toughest enemy, an insanely powerful pimped out dragon without any fancy tricks. A worthy final boss. When Abazigal finally falls (and while crying out for mommy, no less), his statue crumbles. Then Cespenar will approach with congradulations and (if Imoen is with you) tell you that you must kill her to proceed. Or she could give up her Bhaalspawnship, which is something that can only be done at Throne proper. You will have the option of being an ******* and killing Imoen. If you don't, or if Imoen isn't with you anyway, Cespenar will teleport you to the actual Throne of Bhaal.

It's a cool place, details of which I'll leave to imagination here. Cespenar will port away to sweep up Abazigal's remains, leaving you alone with Cyric, who's waiting for you to approach. Cyric will say that he's simply here to watch the last round. Then a familiar person in an unfamiliar outfit appears: Melissan, in a black spiky evil costume of doom. She gives you the last piece of exposition: She, Amelyssan the Blackhearted, was the highest and most loyal priestess of Bhaal and Bhaal had entrusted her with his resurrection. Bhaal stored pieces of his power in Bhaalspawn and as they died, his power returned to gather here in the Throne. Melissan's role was to engineer the deaths of all Bhaalspawn and then resurrect her god once last Bhaalspawn died. Melissan gathered the five most evil and powerful Bhaalspawn, promised them godhood and created the Five. Their grand plan was actually Melissan's, and she betrayed them to you one by one as they outlived their usefulness. She's also been busy hunting down the straggler Bhaalspawn because even though the Five's plan was good, it wouldn't get every single Bhaalspawn. Luckily for Melissan, she could sense every single Bhaalspawn as the Stewardess to the Throne of Bhaal, and has been busy hunting them down since the fall of Saradush. Balthazar was one of those obviously (and so is Imoen, who was betrayed and murdered by Melissan if you were stupid enough to let her leave your party). Now the last obstacle to Bhaal's resurrection is you (and Imoen if applicable). Not that Melissan cares, she has no intention of resurrecting Bhaal. She wants the power for herself. You can do this the easy way, by giving up your Bhaalspawnship as Cespenar told. Or you can resist and Melissan will have to kill you. You actually do have the option to let Melissan ascend to godhood (in exchange for personal power/becoming her high priest(ess)/resurrection of Imoen/etc). If you do, the game will end just like that, Melissan will keep her word and you'll go off to enjoy a life with whatever bargain you made with the new Lady of Murder. Cyric will not like that however, and offer to assist you in battle against Melissan if you'll promise to not claim Bhaal's power for yourself after she's dead, arguing that FR doesn't need yet another evil god.

You can choose to fight Melissan with or without Cyric's help. Melissan has already been absorbing Bhaal's power, she's a demigod for all intents and purposes. There's a number of conduits where power is being channelled into Melissan. You, being a Bhaalspawn, can absorb that power as well, cutting Melissan off. Melissan herself is invincible and extremely powerful and brings a lot of flunkies (demons, Bhaal worshippers, Melissan's disciples, etc.) with her, but she'll grow weaker every time you cut her power intake. There'll be all manner of fancy gameplay tricks with power conduits and their ties to Melissan's power. After a long and exhausting battle, Melissan will fall. If you enlisted Cyric's help, it'll mostly consist of flunkies on your side countering Melissan's horde, with the occasional extra help on conduits. When Melissan is defeated, Cyric will ask you to give up your own claim on Bhaal's power, regardless of whether you promised to or not.

If you do and Imoen is dead, Cyric will be pleased and send you back to FR and game will end. It'll turn out that once there were no others with any claim on it, Bhaal's power can be absorbed by any deity in a position to do so. Which is Cyric in this instance. Grats, you just buffed up a bastard like Cyric and made the universe a darker place.

If you do and Imoen is alive, she'll refuse to believe Cyric and will claim the power to ascend, figuring it'd be better than strengthening a creep like him. Once again, it turns out Cyric wasn't entirely honest and Imoen becomes a benevolent death goddess instead of becoming an evil psychopathic deity of murder. Grats, you just made the universe a lighter place.

If you refuse to give up the power without ever having accepted any help from Cyric, he'll send waves and waves of neverending minions at you. You'll have to absorb power from conduits till you grow strong enough to stop Cyric's interference. The battle will start easy and will get even easier as you absorb power, giving you a taste of godhood. Cyric will not be amused when you banish him from your realm. Imoen will happily give up her Bhaalspawnship afterwards. Grats, you just became a god, ready to make the universe lighter or darker as you see fit.

If you refuse to give up the power and if you'd promised Cyric you would, it'll give him an excuse to fully manifest in Throne of Bhaal and attack you personally. He'll kill your whole party (except Imoen, who'll just be paralyzed if she's still alive), because **** you, and then you'll have to go mano a mano with a greater god. Which will mostly consist of running away from him because he'll destroy you in melee, running from conduit to conduit absorbing more power as Cyric batters you from range as he chases. More or less a time trial. After a set time, you'll have absorbed enough power and will expel him from your recently acquired divine domain. Imoen (if she's alive) will be very angry at you on account of the death of her beloved. You'll have to placate her by resurrecting her paramour because she's not gonna let you ascend to godhood over her love's body (now that you're a god, you can resurrect any and all companions who were killed by Cyric, and Imoen and her lover too if they were victims of Melissan, but not any members who left/turned on you or were dumped before).

Or if you're a ****, you can fight Imoen at that point too. It's quite unlikely at this point but if you manage to lose to Imoen, she'll ascend to godhood and you'll die. And having started on the wrong foot, Imoen will become a CN goddess of killing. Grats, good job there.

And there it is. I spent a pointlessly long time thinking and writing all that up and it'd be a shame to let it go unheard (or rather unread). Any sort of comment, praise or condemnation is not expected but will be welcome.

[Domochevsky]

We all know Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal was a mistake that should not have been.
...

Stop right there. What's that about?

[Raistlin1040]

Yeah, I never got to Throne of Bhaal (Did BG and part of the expansions, then did most of BG2 but never beat it). What's wrong with Throne of Bhaal?

[Liffguard]

Nothing's really wrong with it except for it not being as good as Shadows of Amn. That's not much of a criticism really, not many games are. It was more linear than SoA, had a less involved story and no new party members (well, an old character returned as a party member, but no new characters).

[Crow]

Maybe he mistook Neverwinter Nights 2 for Throne of Bhaal? :) Just kidding.

[Pronounceable]

Nothing's really wrong with it except for it not being as good as Shadows of Amn.

I'm a fan. Do you really expect rationality from me?

[Domochevsky]

So your entire text is based on a false premise, hm? >_>

[Terraoblivion]

I'm more interested in what Black Isle's opinion has to do with anything. Like the rest of the Baldur's Gate series Throne of Bhaal was made by Bioware.

[Hailphage]

Whilst it was disappointing to have the series end via an expansion (instead of a full blown BG3), I felt Throne of Bhaal still did a decent job of it - I was fairly satisfied.

My only major gripe was the somewhat disconnect between the final cutscene of SoA and what we see in ToB (the cutscene sees a bunch of hooded humans in council talking about how Gorion's ward is getting too powerful and needs to be moved against; in ToB we have 'The Five' who are all different Bhaalspawn banding together to eliminate the rest. ) From memory Bioware later stated that the hooded figures were actually meant to represent 'The Five' and players should just roll with it, but it's still a tad awkward.

[Starbuck_II]

Whilst it was disappointing to have the series end via an expansion (instead of a full blown BG3), I felt Throne of Bhaal still did a decent job of it - I was fairly satisfied.

My only major gripe was the somewhat disconnect between the final cutscene of SoA and what we see in ToB (the cutscene sees a bunch of hooded humans in council talking about how Gorion's ward is getting too powerful and needs to be moved against; in ToB we have 'The Five' who are all different Bhaalspawn banding together to eliminate the rest. ) From memory Bioware later stated that the hooded figures were actually meant to represent 'The Five' and players should just roll with it, but it's still a tad awkward.

Guess, those hooded men were killed till there was five left?

[Pronounceable]

I'm more interested in what Black Isle's opinion has to do with anything. Like the rest of the Baldur's Gate series Throne of Bhaal was made by Bioware.

Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along >_>

[Hailphage]

For interests sake, I took the time to read through the whole thing.

And I like it. You've managed to take the broad strokes of Throne of Bhaal as it already stands, but elaborate and expand it in very interesting ways. I also love how you've given some of The Five (particularly Illasera) much greater roles of involvement (and even reimagined them, such as Grmnir being a human and Yaga being a half orc for example), not to mention having Cyric also plotting away there as well.

Pity you couldn't have posted this on one of the many modding communities 10 years ago when there might have been a chance some could have been coded and built - there are still modders around but it's fairly quiet these days (afterall, it's been 10 years since the series was finished - yikes time flies fast ).

Good effort, I approve.

[Kish]

Unlike, apparently, most other people here, I concur with "Throne of Bhaal was a mistake."

Unfortunately, that leads me to "...and you want the same basic plot, just bigger and tougher? Still the Five, still Amellysan the Blackhearted, still the oh-so-clever 'that woman who you knew was a villain as soon as you met her is a villain and no one before you, even Bhaal, realized she wasn't trustworthy' so-called-twist ending?"

I enjoyed the bit at the end with Cyric, though.

[mumwithdice]

I agree with Kish. My personal bugbear with ToB was that I felt it was too epic. Nearly every fight was a boss fight which became both boring and frustrating in equal measure.

In my ideal world, I would have liked to take my party on to Icewind Dale to deal with that situation. Cue Nalia "This is just like I thought it would be, doing good things"

[Domochevsky]

Too epic? As the (soon to be only) child of the god of murder? Say it ain't so!

The only way to go from BG2 was up.

[Cespenar]

Unlike, apparently, most other people here, I concur with "Throne of Bhaal was a mistake."

Unfortunately, that leads me to "...and you want the same basic plot, just bigger and tougher? Still the Five, still Amellysan the Blackhearted, still the oh-so-clever 'that woman who you knew was a villain as soon as you met her is a villain and no one before you, even Bhaal, realized she wasn't trustworthy' so-called-twist ending?"

I enjoyed the bit at the end with Cyric, though.

Meh. All valid points, but a 8.5/10 follow-up after a 9.5/10 masterpiece is not what I would call a "mistake". Though that's the issue there, I'd guess, that you'd not call it a 8.5.

[Driderman]

I resent the notion that Korgan Bloodaxe would fight charname alongside a band of nameless mooks. Bloodaxe is obviously both cunning and opportunistic enough to know that joining forces with charname is a much safer bet than fighting him.

[Kish]

Actually, I didn't even process this earlier.

In BG1, a lot of people can join you.

In BG2, a lot of people can join you, five of whom were in BG1.

In your proposed BG3, you never mention party-joinables at all, beyond mentioning two of the party-joinables from the earlier games--one as plot-central, one as an enemy. I have no objection to the role you propose for Imoen or Korgan in and of itself, but, bluntly, you're not describing a full game. You're describing an expansion, like Throne of Bhaal, only bigger and tougher, and with as much focus on combat as Throne of Bhaal itself.

[Pronounceable]

In your proposed BG3, you never mention party-joinables at all, beyond mentioning two of the party-joinables from the earlier games--one as plot-central, one as an enemy. I have no objection to the role you propose for Imoen or Korgan in and of itself, but, bluntly, you're not describing a full game. You're describing an expansion, like Throne of Bhaal, only bigger and tougher, and with as much focus on combat as Throne of Bhaal itself.

Since I'm neither a writer, nor a designer, there won't be dialogues and quests and such here.

need white text here

[shadow_archmagi]

I've started baldur's gate 2 three times and never gotten more than halfway or so.

I think the last time I quit was when I was wandering in a D&D TARDIS, and then some giant one-eyed monsters or something showed up?

[Starbuck_II]

I've started baldur's gate 2 three times and never gotten more than halfway or so.

I think the last time I quit was when I was wandering in a D&D TARDIS, and then some giant one-eyed monsters or something showed up?

You mean the quest that needs Valgar with the lich (the Planar Sphere)? One eyed creatures... you mean beholders?

[mumwithdice]

Domochevsky, ok, fair enough. I worded that badly. Let me try again.

I think that BG1 and BG2 used the Child of Bhaal theme as a story arc tying the different quests together. ToB, on the other hand, had no quests that weren't one hundred percent about the Bhaalspawn as opposed to, say, the D'Arnise Keep quest in BG2.

I personally would have preferred the Bhaalspawn to be a story arc with quests that lead you up to the really epic battles. Is that clearer?

(I'm replaying BG1 and 2 atm so it's fresh in my mind)

[KingofMadCows]

There were plans for a BG3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%...he_Black_Hound

[Divayth Fyr]

There were plans for a BG3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur%...he_Black_Hound

After reading that I have no clue why (apart from marketing that is) was the III supposed to be in the title...

[Hailphage]

Agreed, it does seem to be more of a marketing tool than a proper sequel. There wasn't any plans to continue the Bhaalspawn storyline.

[KingofMadCows]

Who cares, it was going to be made by the people who made Planescape: Torment and Fallout 2.