Baldur's Gate II (5e campaign log)

[J-H]

After wrapping up Against the Idol of the Sun, my players voted 3-1 in favor of the 1-20 campaign that I have ready to go... which is Baldur's Gate II (SoA+TOB). After writing ~295 pages for AIOS, and then having to edit it all, I am looking forward to something that takes relatively minimal preparation. I can draw entirely from online maps, and already have pre-stocked D&D-suitable dungeons with loot, traps, etc. There will be some adapting, but it's stuff I can do on the fly, or in a few minutes between sessions.

We are going to do weekly(ish) on Sunday nights. IOS took 2.5 years for 42 sessions, with most being in the 2.5-3 hr range (7:30-10:30) if everyone ran on time. Starting at 6:15-6:30 on Sundays (after something that happens on Sundays that I can't talk about per forum rules) means we can run until about 10pm and still get 3.5 hours in, possibly stretching to 4hrs if needed. I'm pretty excited about it.

I plan to write this up as a campaign log like my last two. This one's not going to get published on the DM's Guild, but I still enjoy writing these up, and apparently a few people like reading them.

Spoilers will abound for a 20+ year old CPRG. None of my players have played it, and I have stopped mentioning the name so nobody will be tempted to look it up. If you're playing in this game, you know it. Don't read this thread. The game starts next week, as running D&D on Mother's Day (USA) would be a bad idea.

I'm going to reserve the rest of this post for character info, on the theory that I will occasionally come back and update it.

[J-H]

I'm running this with a larger number of modifications versus past games. I'll be going through the rules changes with my players before the intro/character creation. If they decide a particular change is stupid, I'll cross it off the list. Additionally, I will note that I reserve the right to make some adjustments if something becomes imbalanced in game. In particular, I'll be adapting items mostly on the fly, and may occasionally get something wrong.

Baldur's Gate II features spellcasters as a primary enemy, often as solo enemies. In 5e, that's rough, as casters tend to be squishy and limited by concentration. A few of the rules are designed to both make them tougher, and also make countering them more possible.

Insightful commentary is welcome.

General Notes
The players will be expected to keep some sort of notes on quests/NPCs.
The players will be expected to keep notes on magic items they find, and party gold. I'll provide a chart/template they can use unless someone wants to make something better. I'll try to put all my magic item conversions into our Discord chat and into the campaign log, but there's a lot out there and it's up to them to keep track of their stuff.

Class Changes
I finally skimmed all the UAs for D&D2024 so far, and really didn't find much that I wanted to port over.
Barbarian
• There is no penalty for the Berserker Frenzy. May be limited to ½ # of rages per day.
• You can extend your rage with a Bonus Action each turn.
• Brutal Critical’s damage is now equal to your Barbarian level. This replaces the 9th/13th/17th level features.
• Reckless Attack’s benefit extends until the beginning of your next turn (as does the disadvantage).

Cleric
• Peace & Twilight clerics (Tasha’s) are out.
• Other (custom) domains available upon request, when associated with a specific notable deity.

Fighter
• Eldritch Knights may change the Evocation school out for one other school of their choice. (Notable picks: Necromancy for debuffs, Illusion for miss chances, Transmutation for self-buffs)
• When using Indomitable to re-roll a failed saving throw, you gain a bonus on your roll equal to your Fighter level, and heal yourself the same amount.
• At 7th level, Fighters get Advantage on death saving throws.

Monk
• 4 Element monks get 2 disciplines every time the PHB says they get 1. Discipline use ki costs are halved.

Ranger
• Rangers get their Proficiency Bonus added to damage rolls against their favored enemies, starting at level 1. The level 20 capstone applies to all attack rolls against their favored enemies, not just once per turn.

Rogue
• Soulknife blades stay manifested, and thus can be used for OAs and to gain the benefits of the TWF feat; Available Feat: Improved Soul Blade: Your blade gains an enhancement bonus equal to PB/2 (rounded down).
• Slippery Mind also grants proficiency in Charisma saving throws at level 15.

Sorcerer
• Sorcerers get 2 thematically appropriate spells known added to their list automatically, at spell levels 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, as with Aberrant Mind and Clockwork subclasses. I have a list.

Warlock
• Hexblade medium armor proficiency, as well as CHA to-hit and damage with the Blade pact weapon, move from the Hexblade patron to the Blade pact boon. This makes Blade boon viable for non-Hexblade patrons, and moves any CHA-dependent dips to requiring 3 levels instead of 1. Hexblade is still the only Warlock with native access to martial weapons (versatility) or shields.
• Invocations that say “You can cast X spell with a spell slot” give you one free casting per long rest of that spell.

Wizard
• Scribes wizard (Tasha’s) is out
• Use "An Updated View on Necromancy" for Necromancer wizards. It lets you sacrifice a spell slot to maintain a single minion that is better than a skeleton or zombie, increasing in power up to about CR 8 with a 9th level slot.

General
• Tasha's optional class features are approved. Tasha's rules for making all the races boring are out.
• If you go to 0 or get insta-killed (bypassing 0 hp) and raised, you gain 1 level of exhaustion.
• No Flanking
• Cleave Through (DMG optional rule) applies to adjacent targets.
• Crits: Roll your total damage, then double it. *Damage from poison is not doubled
• Sharpshooter and GWM give a flat always-on +1 damage bonus to the respective weapon types, plus their side benefit. No -5/+10
• Clarification: The Mage Slayer feat can interrupt spellcasting, rather than taking place after the spell is cast. The caster struck then must make a Concentration check to avoid losing the spell he's in the middle of casting.
• Spells only from PHB, Tasha's, XGTE. None from Fizban's or Strixhaven.
• To gain advantage from being an unseen attacker, you must be able to see (blindsight, etc. count) your target.
• Animating dead, summoning beasts, etc. is limited to the Tasha's Summon X spells plus the Necromancy companion from An Updated View on Necromancy.
• Clerics and Paladins derive their powers from a deity. It is possible to lose that deity’s favor/empowerment, which would require finding a new divine patron.
Characters will be built with a stat array:
15
14
13
12
10
9
(equivalent to 28 point buy)
Species available in BG2 are the only ones allowed. Human, elf, half elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, half-orc. No drow, dragonborn, genasi, goliaths, etc.

Alignment & Related
Alignment matters. If your character is a child of the god of murder, carrying a spark of chaotic evil divinity around inside you means you have some conflicting impulses. I’ll judge your character’s alignment based on your character’s actions and words, and it can impact your ability to use certain items.

Alignment is kind of a big hammer tool, in that it has no nuance. I have a more nuanced approach I’d like to add in, and you can credit some stuff from 2nd Peter a month or two ago for making me think of this. By the 3rd session, I’d like everyone to identify to me one or two Virtues and one or two Sins that are particularly important to your character. Vice isn’t the right term here, as vice is usually specific bad habits like gambling or drunkenness rather than character traits.

I’m not looking for the job-interview flaw of “I don’t say no when people ask me to do too much” or “I work too hard.” I’m looking for virtues like Self-Control, Patience, Selflessness, Mercy, Humility, and sins like Pride, Greed, Selfishness, Wrath, or Fear. If it’s something that would show up on a general list in the (religious book), you’re on the right track conceptually. This is not something that you list out in the open for all the other players, but I’ll know about it. Through the game, keep these things in mind, and your character should work to either follow these character traits, or struggle against them and sometimes overcome them- whether you’re overcoming your bad traits or overcoming your good traits as you chase the easy power of evil is up to you though!
For some characters, there may be points when you are judged by outside powers or factions, or even other party members of the party, and these will be part of these judgements. If you’re a child of Bhaal, it may impact what traits certain Bhaal powers take on.
I'm thinking ahead to the Hell Trials here!

Leveling
You will start at level 1 and get to level 3 within the first 2-3 sessions, depending on how you spend your time. Leveling after that will be based on completing quests or objectives. Especially between levels 5 and 10, it may be 2-3 quests per level.. or it could be less. It depends on what the party pursues. By the end of the game long from now, you’ll probably be 20th level.

The campaign is mainly set in a city, but it’s safe to assume that there are dozens of small towns and villages outside the city. You just don’t have a reason to visit Grain Farming Village #3 or Turnip Town, which is run by gnomes by the way, they like turnips, or the keep and domain of a random noble, or what have you. Assume they’re there. There are some quests and areas outside of town, but wandering around aimlessly in the wilderness is generally not how you’ll find out about them. There is a main plot line and quest line that you’ll want to mostly follow. It’ll be pretty obvious. There will be quite a few areas that are more dungeon-crawly with exploring your way through restricted terrain to find an objective, or solve a mystery, or whatever. It is entirely possible to get yourselves in over your heads and have to choose between running away or everybody getting killed. There are at least 3 places where all you have to do is open the right door and touch something and bam! a lich is trying to kill you. You may need to run away from some fights. You may need to leave someone behind to die. The player for that character might need to roll up another character, decide to make an NPC a PC, or otherwise play something else – and perhaps you will pull together a plan to return, retrieve your dead, and raise them again.

I am going to experiment with having the party at potentially different levels. If you miss a session, your character does not progress towards leveling up, and will level up a session later than the rest of the party. If your character dies and is raised from the dead, leveling up is delayed by a session. If your character dies and you make a new one or take over an NPC, you may end up a level or two lower – or rarely, higher.

PVP
I am open to player versus player combat. If one child of Bhaal decides that the other’s death is a way to a quick powerup, or if the party has a druid or cleric or paladin or whatever that decides that one child of Bhaal is slipping too much into being a murderous force of evil, it’s entirely possible that the matter will be settled with spells and blades. PvP can get people pretty upset and is a risk to allow at the table. I have a few parameters around it:
It should not be a sudden decision. It must be foreshadowed several times, and I need to know ahead of time if one of you intends to do so. I can help with the foreshadowing.
It also can’t be resolved by in a completely unfair matter like casting Hold Person while everyone’s asleep, or suddenly attacking a party member while you’re in the middle of a tough fight.
This is open to discussion with my players

NPC Companions
I have a fairly rich set of NPCs to draw from. It’s likely that there will be one or another with the party often, as friends or allies, or just because they’re associated with a specific quest and can help with it. If you bring an NPC along, I’ll run them out of combat, and then I’ll hand their character sheet to someone to run in battle. Your cap is one class-level NPC with you at a time; you can work on finding a reason to drop one in favor of another like “taking a break” or “busy researching something” or whatever. I don’t want to end up with 4-5 PCs and 2-3 class-level NPCs in the party! If someone is missing a session, you can also grab an appropriate NPC to sub in. They will level up in the background, but probably not as fast as the party, and not all at the same rate.

Economy
Also, money is important. Athkatla is the City of Coin. If you were to somehow walk out of the starting dungeon with 50,000 gold, you could totally immediately equip yourself with a +2 sword, full plate armor +1, and a belt that gives you 21 strength. If. And of course equipping the whole party would be pretty expensive as well. Suffice it to say that even some very powerful items are for sale. Aside from non-magical adventuring gear, ignore everything you know about magic item and potion pricing, as I’ll be using the BG2 pricing scheme plus ad-libbing it for the wondrous items that aren’t in the game.

You can either split gold up evenly between the party, or have a big pot that you share and decide how to spend. The big pot will get you a few big items earlier, but then you have to choose how to spend your money. Also, spells that require material components require that you have those material components. If you want to be able to cast Revivify, you need to have pre-bought those 300gp bags of diamond dust and be carrying them around.

Item Identification
You can pick up any magic item and wear it or wave it around without identifying it. If it's a weapon or something, remind me that you're using an unidentified one, and I'll add the appropriate bonuses to your rolls. You can use a short rest to play with the item and figure out some of its characteristics, but it would be a roll (usually but not always Arcana) to activate any active effects.

The identify spell is reliable, but consumes a 100gp pearl each time it's cast.
oh look it's a money sink

Wands and staves
No longer recharge automatically. You can use a spell slot to cast a spell that's in a wand without expending a charge (ie, you have no Lightning Bolt prepared, but have the Wand of Lightning Bolts, so you use a 3rd level slot to cast it).
You can also recharge a wand or staff, but it takes 2 spell slots of the level spell being recharged plus 1 hour, plus a 100gp pearl, which is consumed during the charging process, per charge restored.
oh look it's another money sink

Magic Resistance
Items or abilities that grant Magic Resistance give the creature +1 on saves vs. spells per 5% MR they would have granted. “Magic Resistance” as flat advantage on saves vs. spells doesn’t broadly exist any more.
Magic Resistance cannot be reduced below +0.
I'm not entirely happy with this, but 5e casters are less powerful than 2e, so flat "your spell has 0 effect" % chance was too much.

Feat Changes
-5/+10 feats (GWM, Sharpshooter) instead grant a flat +2 to damage with the appropriate weapon. Other benefits still apply.
Polearm Master’s bonus attack only works if you’re wielding the polearm in two hands.

Items
Quarterstaffs are two-handed only.

Hit Points
After level 10, you gain a fixed amount of hit points at level-up. Warrior types gain 3hp at level-up, skill-types gain 2hp, and caster-types gain 1hp. Warrior: Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Paladin, Ranger; Skill: Artificer, Bard, Rogue; Caster: Cleric, Druid, Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock
HD up to level 10 is rolled or average, player's choice. Paired with bounded accuracy, this keeps damage relevant without me having to chase Big Numbers.

Level Drain
A few monster types can inflict what in old editions would be called “Level Drain.” Instead of all the book-keeping, level drain now reduces your Proficiency Bonus until cured. If your proficiency bonus is reduced to a negative number, the negative number applies to everything, not just things you are proficient in.
Lesser Restoration cures 1 level of Level Drain per casting. Greater Restoration (material component 100gp) completely cures the character.
This was the best option I came up with. In some ways its less scary, as characters don't lose prepared spells or HP, but in other ways, losing PB is scarier as it means spell DCs and such drop too. Lesser Restoration provides a way for them to handle it, but it's not fast in terms of slots consumed.

Death
When a character dies or is petrified and is raised from the dead, the character’s Constitution is permanently reduced by 1. Being reduced to 0hp causes a level of exhaustion.
dum dum dum... don't die. Don't risk going to 0.
Healing potions are very common and can be bought, but it's something like 125 and 450gp each, so there's another money sink

Secrets/Traits
I have a short list of traits. Every player will draw or roll randomly and get to pick one of 3 at character creation. There will be at least one, and probably two, Bhaalspawn. One will take on the "Main character" role from the game, and if we do end up with a 2nd, that one will be Bodhi's soul of choice instead of Imoen if they both make it far enough.

Spoiler: length

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Bhaal Taint
You are a child of Bhaal, the dead god of murder. Your dreams often feature bones, rivers of blood, and other morbid imagery. You occasionally feel that death is beautiful, and wish to inflict more of it. Perhaps you will give in to these urges and follow a path of wanton destruction – or perhaps you will rise above them, and be a paragon of virtue and restraint. The choice is yours. The DM will keep track of your choices and what sort of alignment they represent.

If you’re the first one to choose this origin, you were raised at Candlekeep by Gorion, a harper and wizard. Gorion was killed by Sarevok, your “brother,” who went on to try to start a bloody and completely unnecessary war, hoping to ride the tide of blood to Ascension. Some of your companions are likely to be automatically aware of your history and divine blood.

If you are the second person to choose this origin, then your origin is elsewhere, and you may be able to keep your dark nature a secret.

Each Bhaalspawn starts with 3 Taint points. They lose one point of Taint when killed (including petrification), or when they fail a Death save, and perma-die if they ever hit 0 taint points. Each taint point gives them access to a 1/day cleric spell, typically along the lines of Shield of Faith, Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, assigned by the DM. Buff spells are self-only. These spells are cast without need for V, S, or M components, but are still obviously spells cast unless a Deception check is made as a Bonus Action.
Alternatively, Taint may be used to support a particular character’s idiom in some other way, such as coating a blade in blood or ice and causing it to deal 2 extra ice or necrotic damage per hit for 1 minute at a cost of 1 taint point and a BA.
These spells may shift if your alignment changes towards Good or Evil.
Additional Taint points are gained by killing other Bhaalspawn (equal to the target’s PB-1), or by gaining 1 point of Proficiency Bonus.
Gained Taint be used to either upgrade an existing spell to a higher level upcast, or to swap one of the original spells out for one of higher level. Bhaal spell level jumps are 1st to 3rd, 3rd to 5th, then by one spell level each up to level 7.

Bhaalspawn Ideas
As a Bhaalspawn, you have a small divine fragment in your soul, oriented towards murder. Your character has:
-Occasional dreams about blood, bones, rivers of blood, death, killing, and other similar morbid topics
-One or more supernatural talents or abilities
-Some portion of his or her spirit takes pleasure in death or murder. Maybe your character stops for a moment or two to stare at the bodies of whoever you just killed - just long enough to be weird.
-Your character doesn't particularly care about honor in battle. Murder, after all, is often done when nobody is looking.
-Impulses, desires, and thoughts of killing or murder - ranging from "I look forward to killing bandits" to "Nobody will know if I killed this guy who just surrendered" to "That shopkeeper would look better with a smile carved across his neck." You could handle this through RP or through dice rolls modified by your character's values, or whatever. There should be choices made regularly to follow one path or another.
-You can ignore the desires, channel them to productive ends (I think there was a fictional show named Dexter about a serial killer who did this), or try to deny them entirely. Your character may develop habits, tics, mantras, or similar to help remember to choose to redirect these urges.

Spoiler: Bhaalspawn sorc

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Extra Spells Known 1 Hunter's Mark, Inflict Wounds
2 Invisibility, See Invisibility
3 Nondetection, Spirit Shroud
4 Locate Creature, Phantasmal Killer
5 Dominate Person, Mislead

1 Murderous Healing When you kill a living intelligent creature (INT 4+) with a spell, you regain HP
equal to your PB + spell level. You can only gain this once from a given spell.

1 Deadly Blow You score a critical hit on a natural 19 as well as natural 20

1 Resist the Grave You gain resistance to necrotic damage

6 Sorcerous Assassin When you cast a spell that deals damage, and have advantage on the attack
roll, or the target is unable to perceive your location and actions, the spell does
2d6 extra damage.
When you cast a spell that does not deal damage under the same parameters, the target has -1d4 to its initial saving throw against the effects of the spell.

14 Perfect Getaway Whenever you benefit from Murderous Healing, you may gain the benefit of the
Sanctuary spell until the end of your next turn. This feature may be used a
number of times equal to your PB per long rest.

18 With a Word You may cast Power Word: Kill once per day without expending a spell slot.

Dhampir
You were a normal (non-noble) person until kidnapped weeks, or months, ago. You’re not sure what happened, but your canine teeth can elongate and sharpen themselves, and you have a constant low-level desire to bite something or someone and drink blood.

If you consistently give in to this desire, your alignment will shift to evil, and you will acquire most of the strengths, and some (but not all) of the weaknesses of a vampire over time.

If you consistently resist this part of your nature, you will gain strength of will and self-discipline over time.

If you travel down the middle road like a ship tossed about by the waves, you gain no benefits.
The exact benefits are known only to the DM, and will develop over time.
ie, I don't have them planned out yet
Mechanical effects:
• You have the Dhampir “lineage” as your race. You must use human or variant human as the base species.
• You do not detect as Undead to spells, class features, etc. Turn Undead does affect you, but you have advantage on the saving throw against it.
• Certain groups (druids, paladins, some priests) may view you as unnatural and inherently evil.
• Certain powerful vampires may be able to command your obedience magically, although only for short times or specific tasks.

 
Harper Agent
You are an agent of the Harpers, an organization devoted to stopping evil, promoting balance between civilization and nature, and preserving knowledge and lore. Harpers are a “good through Any Means Necessary” organization, and will use rebellions, assassinations, poison, etc. if needed to remove a threat.
Although bards are the most stereotypical Harper agents, wizards, druids, fighters, rogues, and others are also often members of the Harpers. Barbarians, Clerics, and Warlocks are not likely to be Harper agents.

You traveled with one of the Bhaalspawn in earlier adventures, partly to help defeat the plans of Sarevok Anchev, a Bhaalspawn who wanted to start a war to ascend on a tide of bloodshed, and partly to watch over the Bhaalspawn, who was raised by another harper, named Gorion. Your goal is to guide the Bhaalspawn onto a Good path… or, should that fail, should someone with a small spark of divinity inside choose to serve Evil ends, to arrange for the death or permanent removal of the child of an evil god.

Mechanical Effects
• You gain bonus proficiency in one skill: Chose from Deception, Insight, Stealth, or Sleight of Hand.
• You understand Druidic and Thieves Cant.
• You have prior history in the city of Athkatla, with at least one useful friendly contact. You may also have an old enemy here (side quest/plot).
• You are aware that respected Harper agents typically bear an emblem of some sort with substantial defensive properties. If you fulfill your role as a Harper, you can expect this item to eventually find its way to you.


Normal Person
You are a normal person with no special heritage or unique powers. You were just unlucky enough to get captured, but lucky enough to not die before being freed.  

Tainted Mind
You were a normal (non-noble) person until kidnapped weeks, or months, ago. Now, you feel like sometimes you hear what people are going to stay before you say it.
• Awakened Mind: You may communicate telepathically with one creature visible to you within 30’ of you. You can hear that creature’s responses until you switch to communicating with another creature, or until it is no longer visible or within range.
• You have disadvantage on Intelligence saving throws
• You have vulnerability to psychic damage.

Whenever you reach an even level (2, 4, 6…), roll on the Psionics chart below with the DM, adding your Proficiency Bonus to the roll. You gain a new psionic power. Psionic powers are cast as spells, using INT as your spellcasting modifier. No material or somatic components are needed.
They may be used once per long rest unless otherwise specified.
3 Darkvision (self only) (reroll if you naturally have Darkvision)
4 Enlarge/reduce (self only)
5 Jump (Self only)
6 Absorb Energy
7 Tongues (self only)
8 Levitate (self only)
9 Mind Spike
10 Mind Whip
11 Tongues (Self only)
12 Telekinesis
13 Psychic Lance
14 Longstrider (self only)
15 Chose 1 known power valued below this number. You may use it a second time per day.
16 17 Remove Vulnerability: You no longer have INT save disadvantage or vulnerability to psychic damage.
18 You gain the Telepathic (INT) feat
19 You gain the Telekinetic (INT) feat
20 You gain the Resilient: Intelligence feat.
21 Intellect Fortress: You gain resistance to psychic damage.
22 Disintegrate
23 Roll twice and pick whichever of the results you wish when rolling on this table. Roll now.
24 Body Adjustment: You reduce your exhaustion level by 1 when you take a short rest.
25 Regenerate (self only)
26 Psychic Scream

 
Betrayer (overview)
You made an agreement with an enemy of the group. At some point during the game, you will betray your allies (the DM will help fill this in). Expect to need to roll up a new character afterward, or take over an NPC.
Mechanical Effects
Instead of a 27 point buy, you will use the following stat array (equal to a 31 point buy):
15, 14, 13, 12, 12, 10

Betrayer (detail) this only gets shared if someone picks this origin. This replaces Yoshimo.
Your sister was killed in the city of Baldur’s Gate by a powerful group of adventurers, although you were very light on details. Having made your way west to the Sword Coast, you burn with desire to avenge your sister… enough so that when a powerful wizard approached you, you took his deal.
Not until the Geas was complete did you understand what kind of a person Irenicus is. Your task is to travel with the party, keep the Bhaalspawn alive, and eventually deliver the Bhaalspawn into Irenicus’s custody.
The geas is unbreakable, and even in death, your heart will need to be brought to a priest of Ilmater for you to truly have rest.

This won’t kick in until the party reaches a certain area, and will be lightly foreshadowed through interactions in that area.

Most of the traits grant power, so the Bhaalspawn (game main character) doesn't end up too out of line on power with the rest of the party. Several of them also reflect the importance of the "inner character arc" or moral struggle that the player's characters may face.

Item Changes
X of Protection +1 AC bonuses do not stack with magical armor bonuses.
X of Protection +2 AC bonus stacks only as +1 with magical armor bonuses.
Not impacted by things that adjust base armor such as Barkskin, Mage Armor, etc.

Instead of “Sets your strength to 25” a Belt of Giant Strength would be along the lines of “increases your Strength by 5 to a maximum of 25”. This prevents Str-based characters from totally dumping their primary stat. Stat-boosting items do not exist for all stats.

5e Pricing is gone in favor of BG2 base prices. Items sell for 25% of what you can buy them for as an economy-control measure.

Some items that require attunement in 5e will not in this game. Generally, if it influences your base character statistics, gives more than 3 points of bonus damage, add spells or spell slots, modifies saving throws, or grants one or more substantial immunities, an item will typically require attunement.

You will not find any item that gives +2d6 weapon damage outright. You will find a number of them that give a flat +x elemental damage, or carry other effects.

There’s no outright magic item crafting or potion brewing due to lack of downtime, but there are certain items that can be assembled from parts or upgraded with the right special materials. Not a lot.

Item Conversion from BG2
Check for 5e equivalent versions and decide (for example, Mace of Disruption)
Weapons:
+2 or lower -> +1
+3-+4 -> +2
+5-+6 -> +3
Armor:
+1/+2 ->+1
+3+ -> +2
+4/+5 -> +3
Shields:
+1-3 -> +1
+4 -> +2
+5 -> +3


Full Casters
Full casters get more high level spell slots.
Level Spell Slot
13th 6
15th 7
17th 8
20th 9

Spell additions and changes
Changed Spells
1 Identify Consumes 100gp pearl
3 Dispel Magic The caster must be able to see the target of the Dispel as well as having line of effect.
4 Stoneskin Grants resistance to magical weapon damage as well. Lasts 1 hour. Material component cost increased to 500gp
7 Forcecage Doesn’t exist.
9 Time Stop Can cast spells affecting others. Each spell so cast during Time Stop requires Concentration.

New Cleric & Druid Spells
5 Magic Resistance Touch, 1 hr, grants +1 to saves vs magic per caster’s PB,1 target, upcast 1 target/level; available to Bards
6 Physical Mirror Self, C up to 5 rounds; missiles are returned to sender.
8 Shield of the Archons Self, C up to 5 rounds; target/attack roll spells absorbed up to 3x PB

New Cleric Only Spells
9 Aura of Flaming Death Self, C up to 10 rds; immune to fire & non-magic weapons, partial cover (+2 AC), enemies who attack within 5’ take 3d10 fire damage
9 Globe of Blades Self, C up to 10 rds; creatures within 5’ of caster takes 10d10 magic slashing
damage, Dex save half; save/damage provoked on entering area for first time or starting turn there

New Wizard/Sorcerer Spells
4 Minor Globe of Invulnerability As Globe of Invulnerability, blocks 3rd level & below
4 Minor Spell Trigger Pre-cast 2 spells of 2nd level or below & store; cast both as a Bonus Action @ same target. Consumes material component of powdered ruby, 300gp
5 Breach Target, 30’, auto-dispels protections against physical damage
5 Lower Resistance Touch, reduce target’s saves vs spells by 2+caster’s PB
5 Spell Immunity Self, C up to 10 rds, blocks effects of 1 spell school selected at casting.
Pierce Magic negates
5 Protection From Normal Weapons Self, BA, C up to 3 rounds, blocks all non-magic B/P/S. Incompatible PFMW
6 Pierce Magic Target, 30’, reduce targets saves vs spells by caster’s PB + dispel protections against magic
6 Protection from Magic Weapons Self, BA, C up to 3 rounds, blocks all magic B/P/S.
Incompatible with PFNW
7 Spell Turning Self, C, Causes 12 spell levels of spells cast directly at target to rebound.
Re-use attack rolls. Caster targeted by rebound makes saves.
7 Teleport Range limited to about 100 miles.
8 Spell Trigger Pre-cast 3 spells of 6th level or below & store; cast both as a Bonus Action @ same target. Consumes material component of Emerald, 1500gp.
9 Chain Contingency As Contingency, 3 spells of up to 7th level.
Consumes material component of Rogue Stone, 5000 gp.
9 Spell Trap Self, C up to 5 rnds, absorbs 18 spell levels of spells cast directly at the target.
When hit by a spell, its effect is negated and you regain a spell slot of that level. Can be removed by Pierce Magic.
Consumes material component of Rogue Stone, 5000 gp.

I also have a summary sheet showing all of the spells that have material components, what the component is, and if it's consumed or not during castings. Wizards need to be spending money and buying components to use all the options, which serves as a money sink and a source of decision-making: "Do we save for this good item or do we buy components for these spells?" It also keeps Schroedinger's Wizard in check.

[Jacque]

Will you be using this thread for your campaign log? With all those alterations and additions to the rules, I fear the first 5 pages will be discussing houserules and that it might not over by the time you start posting logs.

It will be interesting to see how you will convert a story with an obvious main character into a narrative where the story and spotlight is shared amongst a group of players.

I have previously tried to convert Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer to a campaign. However, I realised during my preparations that these role-playing video games that takes hundreds of hours to complete, primarily are one long slogfest of combat. But judging from your previous campaign log, your campaigns seem to be quite combat heavy.

I do not have many comments to your new rules. I just want to remark that I hope you ask yourself in what way does the outcome of this rule elevate the game experience?. I am somewhat concerned about what fun your money sinks bring, but I especially hope you carefully consider if it really brings fun to the table when you introduce and enact rules that gives permanent penalties to characters: The loss of con when you die and the loss of progress when you do not attend a session. It sucks to die. It sucks to not be able to attend like when Teador's players has to work. Why do you want to punish that further?

[Kane0]

Looking forward to seeing your next campaign log! And if we're lucky your notes for this one on the DMGuild later too?

[J-H]

Will you be using this thread for your campaign log? With all those alterations and additions to the rules, I fear the first 5 pages will be discussing houserules and that it might not over by the time you start posting logs.

Yes, I will be. I decided to go ahead and put these up first, and I'm glad I did as I discovered that my changes/notes are spread among too many documents with some duplication.

It will be interesting to see how you will convert a story with an obvious main character into a narrative where the story and spotlight is shared amongst a group of players.

That's why I'm giving everyone a (possibly secret) trait/background, so they have their own spotlight moments. It won't be entirely even, but table time never is, and it's up to them to engage or not. The dhampir one of course goes with the vampire encounters, the psionic one will do something with mind flayers (it's actually pretty hard to find them under Athkatla is you don't know what you're looking for), etc. I've tried not to plan too far ahead with that, as I really don't know what they'll go for.

I have previously tried to convert Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer to a campaign. However, I realised during my preparations that these role-playing video games that takes hundreds of hours to complete, primarily are one long slogfest of combat. But judging from your previous campaign log, your campaigns seem to be quite combat heavy.

It's what the system is built for mostly. The way 5e is built, you need X encounters per day for class balance, so "dungeony combats with multiple encounters before the boss" works out. Also, that means I can do more smaller battles instead of fewer really big battles with 10+ enemies and 4+ caster types.

I do not have many comments to your new rules. I just want to remark that I hope you ask yourself in what way does the outcome of this rule elevate the game experience?.

That is a great question to ask!

I am somewhat concerned about what fun your money sinks bring, but I especially hope you carefully consider if it really brings fun to the table when you introduce and enact rules that gives permanent penalties to characters: The loss of con when you die and the loss of progress when you do not attend a session. It sucks to die. It sucks to not be able to attend like when Teador's players has to work. Why do you want to punish that further?

Money sinks
Over the years, there have been quite a few discussions of "My party has tons of gold, what good is it?" BG2 does have magic item shops with good (but not infinite) stock, but if all they are spending gold on is better gear, that's a bit boring. I'd rather have them have to make interesting choices with no clear best answer for things like "Do we equip X caster for these spells, or do we buy potions, or do we buy a better sword?" "This guy dropped a gem we can use as a material component for a spell 5 levels from now, do we hang on to it or do we sell it to buy X item we're saving for?"

It's also a way to partly balance boosted casters by making sure that they have to plan ahead and spend money to use the spells with expensive material components instead of getting free gp->component conversion like I've always done in the past (in campaigns without a dozen stores easily accessible).

These aren't true money sinks in the Diablo/MMORPG style, in that there is always value for the money they spend, not transaction fees and inefficiency losses.

Death
The main reasons on this are:
1. The Bhaalspawn characters do lose power when they die, permanently... which is better than "game over, you died and the Throne sucks up your essence." I do not want to have a game where only some characters have a permanent penalty for death.
2. In 5e, death costs 300gp and a 3rd level spell slot to fix. It's no big deal. This is too easy and cheap.
3. It fits with the older school feel.

I will have to be careful that my moves to cut HP bloat don't cut this down too much where death is too common. In my last two campaigns, I got actual character kills (not knocked to 0) very, very rarely. I will need to try to telegraph in advance what enemies might use Power Word: Kill or similar abilities, or may need to reconsider using them. Perhaps True Resurrection should negate the Con loss, giving an actual reason for it to be used?
Revivify/Raise Dead con loss
Rez make a save to avoid it
TR perfectly safe? Is it worth the price of the Robe of Vecna to keep someone from losing 1 point Constitution?

I have never seen anyone use anything other than Revivify in any of my games.
Edit to avoid Double Posting: Raise Dead and Resurrection both include a death penalty. TR doesn't, but is also as expensive as a top-tier magic item. Revivify is the only "back from the dead" spell that has no penalty. I don't want to incentivize "if you're dead, stay dead for 3 hours to avoid the worst outcome" because that's not fun.
Thoughts on deleting the Con penalty and just adding a Death Penalty effect to Revivify? I am no longer certain that my original reasoning was correct. This is why I posted these a week before the game starts :)

Leveling
It's an experiment, and I think got the idea from an article or blog post somewhere a year or two ago. For a while, I had some players who would just no-show or didn't treat it like an actual calendar commitment, and this acts as a mild counter-incentive to that behavior. I don't know if it'll actually come into play or not with the new schedule.

Looking forward to seeing your next campaign log! And if we're lucky your notes for this one on the DMGuild later too?

Thanks!
One of the reasons I picked this, aside from always wanting to run it, is that I think I can run most of it with minimal notes. Firkraag's lair for example... the only things I really need to do are scale the genies up or down a bit, and then find a couple of statblocks for "Better ogre" for Taazok, the Ruukh transmuter thing (really, it has about 80hp, middling AC, and casts Stinking Cloud), Vampiric Mists, and perhaps a Greater Werewolf block. I don't expect to end up with enough notes with enough detail to be worth publishing... and that's an upside to me currently.

[animorte]

It will be interesting to see how you will convert a story with an obvious main character into a narrative where the story and spotlight is shared amongst a group of players.

I thoroughly enjoyed LotR: War in the North (video game) because of how it handled this. You still had big fights with big names, but at different times and for different reasons, even big names that the main characters heard of or discussed but never encountered themselves.

I'm also interested in this. Haven't read a good campaign log in quite some time.

[Amnestic]

Looking forward to this one. Also going to be stealing your level/energy drain stuff. Have you given any thought to protections against the effect? I know Death Ward got used in later editions, and at a 4th level spell slot for one person it seems fair for "proactive" protection instead of just reactive curing.

I do think adding the Raise Dead "death penalty" to Revivify might help; due to its action+lower material cost I expect you'll still see it the most (though raise dead does fix poisons/mundane diseases) but it's at least still got a very real downside to dying.

[Kane0]

If knocking to 0 gives you a level of exhaustion, and lesser restoration removes one negative level I would also have it remove one level of exhaustion to match. And greater all levels.
Unless you're talking about the playtest version of exhaustion? Then itd be fine.

[J-H]

I thoroughly enjoyed LotR: War in the North (video game) because of how it handled this. You still had big fights with big names, but at different times and for different reasons, even big names that the main characters heard of or discussed but never encountered themselves.

I'm also interested in this. Haven't read a good campaign log in quite some time.

Thanks! Check out the following:
SilverClawShift here on GITP (author)
Kaveman26 here on GITP (author)
Peldor.org has a 20-year novelized 2e campaign log. The campaign ended, but some characters continued on.
Sagiro's Story Hour is pretty long and epic as well.

I am terrible at remembering conversations and all the details of exactly what happened in what order.

Looking forward to this one. Also going to be stealing your level/energy drain stuff. Have you given any thought to protections against the effect? I know Death Ward got used in later editions, and at a 4th level spell slot for one person it seems fair for "proactive" protection instead of just reactive curing.

I do think adding the Raise Dead "death penalty" to Revivify might help; due to its action+lower material cost I expect you'll still see it the most (though raise dead does fix poisons/mundane diseases) but it's at least still got a very real downside to dying.

Death Ward would block it. No need for a separate "Negative Plane Protection." Here's the article with different ideas on how to do Level Drain that I drew from:
https://www.flutesloot.com/level-dra...mebrew-dnd-5e/

Revivify does still come with the exhaustion penalty of having gone to 0. I don't want too much of a death spiral.

If knocking to 0 gives you a level of exhaustion, and lesser restoration removes one negative level I would also have it remove one level of exhaustion to match. And greater all levels.
Unless you're talking about the playtest version of exhaustion? Then itd be fine.

Energy Drain and Exhaustion are different effects with different sources. Exhaustion comes from the players making mistakes and going to 0, which is (usually) avoidable. Energy drain comes from enemy action and is sometimes unavoidable, so it needs to be easier to cure or mitigate.

I will probably let vampires inflict some energy drain without biting, or beef up their ability to hit with bites vs. the 5e default. Grapple (no damage) then bite ends up being relatively weak, and fails if a simple +9 doesn't hit. Vampires' big threat comes from Charm and I don't want a series of vampire battles to be one big contest of Charm stuff, as that would get old fast and hurts player agency more.
I have a while to decide, and might end up just test-running the mechanics in a quick one-shot here if I am not sure I've made the right choice.

[animorte]

Thanks! Check out the following:
SilverClawShift here on GITP (author)
Kaveman26 here on GITP (author)
Peldor.org has a 20-year novelized 2e campaign log. The campaign ended, but some characters continued on.
Sagiro's Story Hour is pretty long and epic as well.

I actually have SilverClawShift's campaign logs saved in my signature, exactly where I got my start and it's so good!

I'll look into the other, thanks!

[Ionathus]

I'm actually introducing my players to Athkatla right now: they haven't met any characters from the game, but the setting and the map and the organizations are all the same! It's been very, very nice to have them say "okay we want to go to the poor part of town" and I can say "why yes I do just happen to have a photographic memory of every detail in The Slums"

Your rules changes on the whole look pretty good. I don't think you need the HP nerf - I'm running a high-level 5e campaign right now and I can threaten the characters' lives just fine even when they have high HP values. Keep in mind that a Fighter in SoA:ToB could end the game at level 40, so the HP nerf was more necessary, but you're only going to level 20 (in 5e). The players are going to need every hit die by the time they're facing multiple liches, dragons, Demogorgon, etc. A single Meteor Swarm is gonna chew through that HP in the blink of an eye.

I like your change for Energy Drain but I think you should simplify it even further: for every level of drain, add a -1 modifier to every roll they make. Lesser Restoration removes 1 level, Greater removes 2-3 or whatever you like best. I think OneD&D UA tried that with exhaustion at one point and I thought it was pretty elegant, and stole it for my 5e game.

Careful with the named NPCs. They're likely going to be precious and interesting to you, but you have no idea whether the players are gonna friggin' hate Yoshimo and Imoen and instead hyperfixate on Ribald Barterman and ask him to come with. My advice is to keep them in the background, make them quest givers and occasional guest team members in a single fight or two, but mostly let the party determine its own dynamics. Don't involve Imoen in the main storyline - give them another reason to care about Spellhold.

Finally, and this is the only big one that I think is going to make or break the game: just friggin' make them all Bhaalspawn. Nothing in the game or the story breaks if you just say "you all grew up as orphans in Candlekeep, raised by Gorion, who was then slain by Sarevok, and you found out you were the children of the dead God of Murder just like Sarevok."₁

Jon Irenicus and Bodhi can steal multiple souls each, why not, you get to make the rules. It makes just as much sense to say "yeah the grafting process doesn't give them the full power, so they needed multiple bhaalspawn for the ritual" and then everybody's got a Stolen Soul^TM. There are so many Bhaalspawn running around in ToB anyway that it makes just as much sense, and then you both A) don't have to jump through any hoops to prevent a few characters from becoming Main Characters and also B) you have a very neat, very simple way to keep the party together and motivate them.

[Edit] Hell, I just had an idea: have Jon Irenicus attack Candlekeep, kill Gorion, and kidnap all of the Bhaalspawn PCs for his experiments! Boom, it cuts you right to the good stuff in BG2, it cleans up the backstory stuff, and it gives players a strong incentive to chase Irenicus to Spellhold.

1. And honestly, if you're not gonna let them play an abridged version of BG1, maybe just shorten it to "raised at Candlekeep as orphans and then the monks told you your birthright once you came of age, but they couldn't keep you safe so sent you on your way" and cut out the Gorion and Sarevok bits, or move the Sarevok bit to elsewhere, if they're not going to actually experience the BG1 story.

[J-H]

I'm actually introducing my players to Athkatla right now: they haven't met any characters from the game, but the setting and the map and the organizations are all the same! It's been very, very nice to have them say "okay we want to go to the poor part of town" and I can say "why yes I do just happen to have a photographic memory of every detail in The Slums"

Cool!

Your rules changes on the whole look pretty good. I don't think you need the HP nerf - I'm running a high-level 5e campaign right now and I can threaten the characters' lives just fine even when they have high HP values. Keep in mind that a Fighter in SoA:ToB could end the game at level 40, so the HP nerf was more necessary, but you're only going to level 20 (in 5e). The players are going to need every hit die by the time they're facing multiple liches, dragons, Demogorgon, etc. A single Meteor Swarm is gonna chew through that HP in the blink of an eye.

I just finished a high level campaign and it took a lot to threaten them. Looking ahead at the higher end challenges, the only time they face a bunch of really tough opponents at once are some of the fights where there's a half-dozen high CR devils/demons/Slayer Shadows running around. Even Fire Giants are only CR 9, and a 15th level party can probably handle 4-6 of them at a time with ease, with the giants likely to only hit once per round against ACs in the low 20s (excluding Shield, Haste, fighting styles, etc.). Especially at the higher end of the game, I suspect we won't see as many encounters per day as at lower levels. For example, Yaga-Shura's lair is kind of boring with a number of same-y fights and very game-like token collecting, as an example, and I'll probably have to alter/shrink it.

Careful with the named NPCs. They're likely going to be precious and interesting to you, but you have no idea whether the players are gonna friggin' hate Yoshimo and Imoen and instead hyperfixate on Ribald Barterman and ask him to come with. My advice is to keep them in the background, make them quest givers and occasional guest team members in a single fight or two, but mostly let the party determine its own dynamics.

I feel like having a "you can bring one NPC along" option means that they can choose to fill any holes in the party dynamic, and if someone's out, they aren't missing 1/4th of their combat power. Nobody will feel like they have to play the cleric, wizard, rogue, etc. if they know they can grab an NPC for whatever role they want.
The BG2 NPCs almost all have some kind of quest or quest hook associated with them to flesh them out a bit... but it's going to be up to the players to bite or not, and whether or not they are interested. It might be interesting to see how they handle, say, Keldorn's side quest with his family. Very much story, not combat, there.

Don't involve Imoen in the main storyline - give them another reason to care about Spellhold.
Finally, and this is the only big one that I think is going to make or break the game: just friggin' make them all Bhaalspawn. Nothing in the game or the story breaks if you just say "you all grew up as orphans in Candlekeep, raised by Gorion, who was then slain by Sarevok, and you found out you were the children of the dead God of Murder just like Sarevok." Jon Irenicus and Bodhi can steal multiple souls each, why not, you get to make the rules. It makes just as much sense to say "yeah the grafting process doesn't give them the full power, so they needed multiple bhaalspawn for the ritual" and then everybody's got a Stolen Soul^TM. There are so many Bhaalspawn running around in ToB anyway that it makes just as much sense, and then you both A) don't have to jump through any hoops to prevent a few characters from becoming Main Characters and also B) you have a very neat, very simple way to keep the party together.

At the end, do they have to vote on who becomes a god, or does it turn into an intra-party murderfest until there is only one left standing?
When souls are stolen, do you have an entire party that can turn into Slayers? It's an evil shift, but they will be able to mulch anything in their path.

I may leave it open for "alternate Bhaalspawn" as a choice for everyone. If I do end up with several Bhaalspawn I will drop Imoen.

I think some of my players will have more fun with the dhampir origin, or getting some 2e-style semi-random psionics (which they may remember from the early 90s), or the other options that don't put as much stress on them to have to have a character with a big dramatic internal struggle going on.
It's D&D... the players get a big vote in what happens, and I really don't know what they will choose.

[tchntm43]

I'm actually kind of surprised that they never released an official adventure module that covers the content of the games. Updating it for 5e after this much time would even lead to so many changes that people who have played the video games would get a lot of new content.

[Ionathus]

Fair point on the HP and NPC stuff!

At the end, do they have to vote on who becomes a god, or does it turn into an intra-party murderfest until there is only one left standing?
When souls are stolen, do you have an entire party that can turn into Slayers? It's an evil shift, but they will be able to mulch anything in their path.

I may leave it open for "alternate Bhaalspawn" as a choice for everyone. If I do end up with several Bhaalspawn I will drop Imoen.

I think some of my players will have more fun with the dhampir origin, or getting some 2e-style semi-random psionics (which they may remember from the early 90s), or the other options that don't put as much stress on them to have to have a character with a big dramatic internal struggle going on.
It's D&D... the players get a big vote in what happens, and I really don't know what they will choose.

The finale where they resolve Bhaal's essence shouldn't be an issue plot-wise: after all, CHARNAME and Imoen get all the way to the end of the game before the Solar goes "Gimme dem Divine Sparks." The game offers the player several options: renounce your essence and live a mortal life, or accept the mantle of divinity. If multiple players want to be gods and they're all Good or Neutral-aligned, they could potentially share the power? If they're Evil, you could do the murderfest.

Ultimately I think it's an interesting story question to hang over their heads, and as they approach the ending, hopefully the players will naturally have these discussions and characterization so that by the moment they stand before Amellysan fallen at the Throne, they will know where everyone stands and can have a dramatic final decision made by the whole group. Loaded with pathos. Maybe turn on the waterworks as some friends say goodbye to others.

If you have a group of players who are willing to play ball and buy into the "party" conceit, you should be fine...If you wind up with a bunch of Evil PCs they might go full battle royale at the end, but it kinda makes sense for them to band together against more powerful Bhaalspawn first, with the tacit assumption that they'll all turn on each other once they're at the Throne. That's a real per-party question though, and you know your table best.

RE: the Slayer transformation -- TBH "Oh no, each one of us could now turn into a whirling tornado of death and malice at any moment" sounds like a fun thing to me rather than a problem My players all have different "superpowers with a cost" buttons right now and they don't use it every time, especially when you put the right flavor on it. For the Slayer transformation, you could even start having them act erratically, attack allies in combat, take levels of exhaustion, etc. so that it doesn't become the OP option you take every combat without limitations.

And yeah if not everyone wants to play the Bhaalspawn arc I totally get it. But if that's the case, I'm a little nervous for how Bhaalspawn-heavy the ToB plots get. You'll need to be adding a lot of other organizations, world powers, secret supernatural forces behind the scenes, especially as The Five race towards a final conclusion.

[Ionathus]

Fun sidebar to this discussion: my campaign just had an Athkatla session last night that featured a few run-ins with the Cowled Wizards. Later on, an NPC who was in hiding suggested that he use disguise magic to make himself look like a cow when traveling with the party, and our paladin just casually dropped this one:

"Well, that might help, but at least the city's magical enforcers would now be at your beck and call."
*beat*
"...you know, because they're the Cow-led Wizards."

He'd apparently been sitting on it for an hour, thinking "there's no way I'm ever gonna get to use this."

[Amnestic]

Cowled Wizards.

That does bring up another thought I had - in the original BG2, you couldn't cast arcane spells outside without a magic license or risk incurring the Cowled Wizard's wrath - is this something you'd look to import @J-H?

With the somewhat blurring of 'arcane' lines in 5e (less so in 5.5), though I expect I'm still some years away I was considering restricting it to any non-Clerics(/maybe Paladin) casting, with the logic that clerics got away with it due to association with the Churches, who the Cowled Wizards have limited influence over, but everyone else would get pinged by the magic radar and warned, then attacked/arrested.

[Ionathus]

That does bring up another thought I had - in the original BG2, you couldn't cast arcane spells outside without a magic license or risk incurring the Cowled Wizard's wrath - is this something you'd look to import @J-H?

With the somewhat blurring of 'arcane' lines in 5e (less so in 5.5), though I expect I'm still some years away I was considering restricting it to any non-Clerics(/maybe Paladin) casting, with the logic that clerics got away with it due to association with the Churches, who the Cowled Wizards have limited influence over, but everyone else would get pinged by the magic radar and warned, then attacked/arrested.

I know you're not asking me, but I do have some insights from the last few sessions on this:

My players really hated getting dinged for magic use. They're level 13 and have already toppled a corrupt kingdom, so their first interaction with the Cowled Wizards was of course confrontational after they scared off a mugger. My initial plan was for the ol' CWs to be mostly obstructive bureaucrats who welcomed bribes but were not actively malicious, and tried to make the "pay for a license" route clear-cut and easy. 5k is a drop in the bucket at my players' level, but they haven't bitten yet. I anticipate them making a bigger deal out of this than I expected, probably because it's not fun to have some shmuck tell you your business when you've already saved the world at least once.

[da newt]

"Sharpshooter and GWM give a flat always-on +1 damage bonus to the respective weapon types, plus their side benefit. No -5/+10"

"Feat Changes
-5/+10 feats (GWM, Sharpshooter) instead grant a flat +2 to damage with the appropriate weapon. Other benefits still apply.
Polearm Master’s bonus attack only works if you’re wielding the polearm in two hands.

Items
Quarterstaffs are two-handed only."



Just a little thing - you say GWM/SS add a flat +1 to damage earlier/above and then change to +2.

So if a 1/4 staff is 2 handed, can you PAM BA attack w/ it?

Are the allowed race's subraces allowed (shadar kai for example)?

" Magic Resistance
Items or abilities that grant Magic Resistance give the creature +1 on saves vs. spells per 5% MR they would have granted. “Magic Resistance” as flat advantage on saves vs. spells doesn’t broadly exist any more.
Magic Resistance cannot be reduced below +0."

Isn't the normal MR = 50% so +10 on saves? How does that math work?



I don't know anything about BGII, but your rules seem very well thought out and I expect it will be a heck of a campaign. I especially like the mage slayer buff.

[J-H]

And yeah if not everyone wants to play the Bhaalspawn arc I totally get it. But if that's the case, I'm a little nervous for how Bhaalspawn-heavy the ToB plots get. You'll need to be adding a lot of other organizations, world powers, secret supernatural forces behind the scenes, especially as The Five race towards a final conclusion.

ToB does include some stuff with vampires/undead, mind flayers, and of course I'm sure the Harpers would have all sorts of reasons to be involved in this...beyond Terminsel just showing up.

Fun sidebar to this discussion: my campaign just had an Athkatla session last night that featured a few run-ins with the Cowled Wizards. Later on, an NPC who was in hiding suggested that he use disguise magic to make himself look like a cow when traveling with the party, and our paladin just casually dropped this one:

"Well, that might help, but at least the city's magical enforcers would now be at your beck and call."
*beat*
"...you know, because they're the Cow-led Wizards."

He'd apparently been sitting on it for an hour, thinking "there's no way I'm ever gonna get to use this."

This is great!

That does bring up another thought I had - in the original BG2, you couldn't cast arcane spells outside without a magic license or risk incurring the Cowled Wizard's wrath - is this something you'd look to import @J-H?

With the somewhat blurring of 'arcane' lines in 5e (less so in 5.5), though I expect I'm still some years away I was considering restricting it to any non-Clerics(/maybe Paladin) casting, with the logic that clerics got away with it due to association with the Churches, who the Cowled Wizards have limited influence over, but everyone else would get pinged by the magic radar and warned, then attacked/arrested.

I know you're not asking me, but I do have some insights from the last few sessions on this:

My players really hated getting dinged for magic use. They're level 13 and have already toppled a corrupt kingdom, so their first interaction with the Cowled Wizards was of course confrontational after they scared off a mugger. My initial plan was for the ol' CWs to be mostly obstructive bureaucrats who welcomed bribes but were not actively malicious, and tried to make the "pay for a license" route clear-cut and easy. 5k is a drop in the bucket at my players' level, but they haven't bitten yet. I anticipate them making a bigger deal out of this than I expected, probably because it's not fun to have some shmuck tell you your business when you've already saved the world at least once.

I'll do it by source in the older style split of Arcane/Divine, no Primal source. EK and Arcane Trickster use Arcane magic, Shadow Monk's Ki isn't quite magic.

I expect the CW to get more attention at the table than they did in the computer game. They clearly use Dimension Door (max range 500') to move around the city for fast response, so they probably have a couple of invisible towers or an invisible flying/pocket plane base overhead, which also houses their sensors... and that's why you can walk inside a house, cast Fireball, and not draw their wrath.

Long ago, I read through most of the available BG2 Fanfiction. I expect to draw some on my recollections of that, especially one that was focused around Adrian, a NE/LE protagonist who worked with the Zhentarim. At one point, an old paladin who knew he was going to die in the next year or two hired him for a one on one duel, with assurances of no retribution. He wanted to go down swinging against evil rather than dying in his bed. The paladin's family wasn't happy about it, but he made them swear not to prosecute or interfere. If they go evil, I am definitely going to use it. I think one of the storylines also involved the CWs getting the Nether Scroll and Edwin provoking a raid to steal it back, swap it with a duplicate, or something like that.

I'll see where the players go on that. It could go anywhere from "we hate the CWs" to turning them into allies and getting some support within their ranks.

"Sharpshooter and GWM give a flat always-on +1 damage bonus to the respective weapon types, plus their side benefit. No -5/+10"

"Feat Changes
-5/+10 feats (GWM, Sharpshooter) instead grant a flat +2 to damage with the appropriate weapon. Other benefits still apply.
Polearm Master’s bonus attack only works if you’re wielding the polearm in two hands.

Items
Quarterstaffs are two-handed only."


Just a little thing - you say GWM/SS add a flat +1 to damage earlier/above and then change to +2.

Typo, thanks

So if a 1/4 staff is 2 handed, can you PAM BA attack w/ it?

Yes

Are the allowed race's subraces allowed (shadar kai for example)?

No, just basic PHB races, no Shadar-kai. 2e feel.

" Magic Resistance
Items or abilities that grant Magic Resistance give the creature +1 on saves vs. spells per 5% MR they would have granted. “Magic Resistance” as flat advantage on saves vs. spells doesn’t broadly exist any more.
Magic Resistance cannot be reduced below +0."

Isn't the normal MR = 50% so +10 on saves? How does that math work?

5e Magic Resistance is normally advantage, which is roughly +3-+5 to the saving throw.
http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2012/...advantage.html

[Abuzorg]

Very excited to read this! Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 are the games I spent the most hours on in my life.

One question I have / thing for you to consider is how are you going to manage the tension between the plethora of side quests and the main quest (amass 15 000 gold to pay either the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi to help you get to Brynnlaw) that you get in chapter 2? What I mean is that in the video game, you are pretty free to explore all of the world with no time limit. Within the expectations of an actual game, I feel like the players will be very tempted to speedrun everything and get to Spellhold as soon as they can. It's awkward enough in the video game that Irenicus waits for you for weeks/months for you to get there and save Imoen, I feel it could be a problem for the suspension of disbelief in your game.

[J-H]

One of the things we'll cover in session 0 is "Your characters are really somewhere in the 5th-8th level range from prior events, but being locked up and tortured for a month or more has left you weak. It'll take some time to get back into fighting shape." This justifies starting at level 1, and also points out that they will need to level up some simply to get to back to where they "should be."

I am expecting that Irenicus being able to throw around 7th-9th level spells at will (he's really more of a sorcerer than a wizard) will tip them off that they shouldn't go after him at 4th level. The Cowled Wizards using Dimension Door also illustrates an expected power level.... if Irenicus scares the magical police, and the magical police are at least 7th-9th level, the party should be too. The prospect of going into a vampire lair should also make them stop and think "Wait, we need some magical armor and weapons."

There's also the simple greed of visiting some stores and wanting to get a few items off of a shopping list first.
I am generally eyeballing Spellhold as happening somewhere around 9th-12th level and Suldanesselar somewhere between 15th and 19th. ToB is 18 to epic boon territory.... but we'll see what they do.

This is intended as a low-prep game, but I decided I wasn't happy with some of the basic NPC statblocks. Long ago, I ran across a great writeup of what city guards should really carry, including melee and ranged weapons, a billy-club equivalent, a whistle, and some other stuff. I can't find it now. Here's my version.

Spoiler: Athkatla city guard

Show

Amnish City Guard
Medium Humanoid
Armor Class 17 (Splint)
Hit Points 24
Speed 30 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
13(+1) 12(+1) 12(+1) 10(0) 12(+1) 10(0)
Saves Str +3, Wis +3
Skills Athletics +3, Insight +3, Perception +3
Senses Passive Perception 13
CR ½
Actions
Multiattack. The guard makes two attacks, or attempts to use Manacles.
Halberd. Melee Weapon Attack, +3 to hit, 10’, 1d10+1 slashing damage.
Haft Shove. Melee Weapon Attack, +3 to hit, 10’, 1d4+1 bludgeoning damage. Target must make a DC 11 Strength save or be knocked prone or pushed back 5’ (guard’s choice).
Manacles. Target must be prone, grappled, or restrained. The target must make a DC 11 Dexterity save or have Manacles applied to it. This reduces its speed by 10’, and prevents wielding two-handed weapons, casting spells with somatic components, climbing, or swimming.
Escaping the manacles requires a DC 20 Dexterity check, or DC 20 Strength check to break them. A DC 15 Thieves Tools check is sufficient to pick the lock, but the DC is 25 if the person making the check is manacled. Guards also carry manacle keys in a standard pattern.
Bonus Actions
Whistle. Blows his whistle loudly, summoning reinforcements that will arrive in 1 minute. If other guards are nearby, they arrive in 1d4 rounds instead.

"In the name of the council, I am here to keep order!"

Spoiler: Cowled Enforcer

Show

Cowled Enforcer
Medium Humanoid
Armor Class 15 (Mage Armor)
Hit Points 62
Speed 30 ft.
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
10(0) 12(+1) 12(+1) 16(+3) 10(0) 12(+1)
Saves Int +6, Wis +3; adv. Concentration checks
Skills Arcana +6, Investigation +6, Intimidation +4
Senses Passive Perception 10
CR 10 (PB+4) (level, not CR)
Warcaster. The Cowled Enforcer may cast a spell as an Opportunity Attack, and has advantage on Concentration checks.
Actions
Spellcasting. The Cowled Enforcer casts a spell.
Spell save DC 15, spell attack roll +7.
[][][][] 1st level
[][][] 2nd level
[][][] 3rd level
[][][] 4th level
[][] 5th level
Attack
Cantrip Fire Bolt
Cantrip Acid Splash
Cantrip Ray of Frost
1 Magic Missile
2 Scorching Ray
5 Bigby’s Hand (C)
Control
2 Silence (C)
2 Hold Person
4 Resilient Sphere (C)
4 Banishment (C)
Defense
1 Shield
1 Absorb Elements
2 Blink
2 Mirror Image
Mobility
4 Dimension Door
Summon
5 Conjure Nishruu
Utility
Cantrip Dancing Lights
1 Detect Magic
2 Darkvision
2 Invisibility
2 See Invisibility
3 Counterspell
3 Dispel Magic
5 Scrying (C)
Bonus Actions
Command Nishruu. The Cowled Enforcer commands a summoned Nishruu.
Reactions
1 Absorb Elements
1 Shield
3 Counterspell

"This is your one warning."

Spoiler: Nishruu

Show

Nishruu
Large Elemental
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 90
Speed 40 ft. (fly)
Str Dex Con Int Wis Cha
14(+2) 20(+5) 16(+3) 6(-2) 10(0) 10(0)
Damage Immunities Non-magic B/P/S, acid, force, lightning, poison
Damage Resistances cold, fire, thunder
Condition immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious
Saves Int +6, Wis +3; adv. Concentration checks
Skills Arcana +6, Investigation +6, Intimidation +4
Senses Passive Perception 13, Darkvision 60’
Amorphous. The Nishruu moves without provoking opportunity attacks, and can move through openings as small as ½”.
Antimagic aura. Spellcasters inside the Nishruu’s space must make a DC 14 Concentration check to cast a spell. Potions and magic items that must be activated have a 50% chance to fail while in the Nishruu’s space. If they fail, the Nishruu heals 10hp and the item loses a charge / potion is consumed.
Magic Sense The Nishruu senses all magic items and spellcasting individuals within 60’.
Actions
Spell Drain. Any spellcasting creature whose space the Nishruu also occupies loses one random available spell slot (roll a dice of the appropriate size to determine which level). The Nishruu heals for 3 x the spell slot’s level.

Nom nom nom

Enforcers are loosely based on a 10th level wizard, but with NPC HP (d8s) and I didn't check their spells prepared vs what a wizard should have. Really they just ended up with a "find / control" suite plus defenses and some single target damage spells. No big AOE damage spells, as that's what they are there to stop.

Possibly true facts
The Cowled Wizards have several invisible reflectors hanging in the sky that they can “bounce” Dimension Doors off of to reach all of the city. These reflectors also serve as magic detectors.

They have a wing of the main government building to themselves. It’s magically larger on the inside and includes several demiplane sections. Burglary is possible, but very difficult.

The Cowled Wizards have a deal with the Nishruus, who actually live at a secure location on the Material Plane and are kept “well fed” by them, which is why nobody else uses them. There are only about a dozen Nishruus, but the magic that conjures them causes them to vanish just before dying. Death magic can overcome this. If someone starts killing the Nishruus outright, they will get very upset.

[sambojin]

While not canon, I'd probably give the CW Enforcers Misty Step, just so they can not only teleport in, they can bounce around a bit quickly as well. If you think that's too much, chucking Expeditious Retreat on the list would work just as well.

The threat of them goes down a heap with a mobile or tricksy party. You've got Invis and detect invis covered, but movement is sometimes key in making for an interesting and memorable encounter.

[J-H]

I think if a CE needs Misty Step, He's likely to DDoor out and return with four more.

I'm not expecting the party to fight them... probably not anyway.

[JackPhoenix]

If you can get your hands on Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy, an Extra Life supplement, it does have stats for BG monsters like the wolfweres, and NPCs and villains including Viconia, Edwinn, Sarevok, Irenicus and Bodhi, and even Bhaal's Slayer.

[Amnestic]

If you can get your hands on Minsc and Boo's Journal of Villainy, an Extra Life supplement, it does have stats for BG monsters like the wolfweres, and NPCs and villains including Viconia, Edwinn, Sarevok, Irenicus and Bodhi, and even Bhaal's Slayer.

I do have this and to give my two cents: it's a bit hit and miss. It's written for the 5e era rather than the original 2e time period, meaning that the characters are written for a post-Throne of Bhaal (by a hundred years or two) reality.

Sarevok's working for Bhaal again (and uses a longsword instead of a greatsword? Disgusting), Irenicus is a lich who hangs out in a Domain of Dread reflection of Suldanessellar in the shadowfell, and the statblock for Bhaal's Ravager mentions a fear aura that it doesn't actually have.

It does have some good stuff though - the group patron section was pretty great and while I do have some criticisms about the enemy statblocks they're generally decent, just important to bear in mind that they're written as if Throne of Bhaal took place a while ago, rather than in-current-year.

[J-H]

I think they left Imoen as a rogue as well, didn't they?

I considered making Sarevok a Conquest Paladin, but both times I've sat down to build him, I've ended up building him as a Samurai. It gives him some of the persuasion skills that tied in with his attempt to take over Baldur's Gate, and matches with the whole "I refuse to die again" thing he has going in ToB. If the party keeps his sword until they meet him again, it will get a boost (they hinted at it in dialogue but didn't implement it).

I contemplated dropping the Equalizer, but it's another motive to check out the beholder and illithid environments in the underdark. I don't want to deal with "Is this enemy NE or CE? Do I get +2 or +4?" Moving a bit away from alignment tracking to a more Law based approach, I have (for now) settled on it being a +3 Longsword. While attuned and holding it, the user can Take 10 on one attack roll and one saving throw per round (resets at the beginning of the round's initiative). Whether that is a great ability or a weak one is, I think, going to depend on the character, the foe, and the player's interest in having guaranteed "Not Bad" rolls.

[Amnestic]

I think they left Imoen as a rogue as well, didn't they?

She's a straight rogue but has some vampire powers (darkvision necro/poison res, spider climb, sunlight sensitivity) because of Bodhi-soul-stealing shenanigans.

The same writer (James Ohlen) also did the Heroes of Baldur's Gate adventure, which set itself either in a 5e era or in a post-BG1 timeline; in that version Imoen's 5e era was an awakened Clone. Again, some neat ideas in there, but probably less useful since - as the name implies - it's all around Baldur's Gate, rather than Athkatla/Amn.

[J-H]

Session 0: 5/21/2023

We started a bit late, then went through the rule changes (mostly minor, but took a while)… everyone was fine with everything. Everyone rolled a d20 and stepped outside with me in order to discuss what their character’s secret/background/etc. was. There was a lot of thinking and some tough choices. Everyone then built character sheets, usually using D&D Beyond and then copying onto paper and adding choices made.

I’ll list them in the order they picked their particular “thing” that landed them in Chateau Irenicus.

Cormak Nailo (player previously played Troudar the Samurai): Half-elf Trickery Cleric of Shar. Was kidnapped a month or two ago and now mysteriously has telepathic powers. Has the Tainted Mind backstory, and says he wants to keep it a secret as long as possible. He picked Cleric partly because the party was a bit squishy, then decided Trickery looked most interesting. I had to help come up with Shar as a deity that fit with it that was within his goal of neutral-to-evil-ish. An odd build choice, but Cleric is a solid enough class that even a suboptimal cleric is still a good cleric.

Mergand Sander (player previously played Ratel the Monk): Human Bhaalspawn Sorcerer. Was raised in Candlekeep, saw Sarevok kill Gorion, killed Sarevok, and then got kidnapped after leaving Baldur’s Gate. Wouldn’t have minded keeping it a secret, but was more open to it than the other Bhaalspawn. After everyone had picked their secret, he made his character sheet and went “By the way, I picked the Faction Agent background.” I looked it up. “So, after your character ran away while Gorion was killed, you encountered some Zhentarim on the road and some Harpers. Which one did you decide to go with and work with?” He thought about it, and decided the Harpers would be more interesting in terms of reinforcing the good-vs-evil-nature tension, without knowing what anyone else had picked.
Bhaal powers: Expeditious Retreat, Cure Wounds, Shield of Faith, each 1/day; when assigning Bhaal powers, I also asked if he was the type to run to trouble or stay away from it.

Leon Dreyer (player previously played Teador the Paladin): Half-elf Ranger, Bhaalspawn. He tried to stay neutral, under the radar, and as neutral and quiet as possible. Irenicus still found him and kidnapped him, but he put up a fight. Trying to keep his Bhaalspawn origin and powers secret. He came in already wanting to play a Ranger for some reason. Not sure what he’s picked for favored enemies, will ask.
Bhaal powers: Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, Absorb Elements, each 1/day; a straight-up neutral mix.

Ludwig (player previously played Saqwam the Warlock): V. Human Rogue, Harper Agent. Arrived at this before Mergand said anything about being a faction Agent / Harper. Met up with Mergand shortly after he left Candlekeep, and traveled with him as they resolved the situation with Sarevok. I pointed him at the RPGBot Rogue handbook after his initial choices were Str 14 / Dex 14/ Con 16 on a rogue. He changed them around a bit, and picked Tough as his feat.

It was late enough to wrap up at this point. Ludwig will fill in for Imoen for the initial release from their cages, and Leon will be Bodhi’s soul donor later. Imoen no longer exists, and they’ll meet Yoshimo on schedule, although I expect he won’t stay with them long enough to get to Spellhold. We ended up with a great synergy on the double-Harper thing. I'll probably need to expand Harper involvement in a few places... obviously I'll steal everything from Jaheira's quest to help with this.

[Ionathus]

Exciting stuff!

Jaheira's quest is great across the board - exploring the harpers' hold, getting used for the Xzar assassination, then getting called back later for the attempted Imprisonment, is one of the more memorable BGII plotlines and sounds like it'll be a neat way to test party loyalties with multiple Harpers (and one who's both Harper-aligned and Bhaalspawn? *chefs kiss*).

Nixing Imoen was a good choice, even if she does a ton of the "who the hell is this Irenicus dude and why is he so messed up" legwork in the first dungeon. But with multiple thinking humans in these roles, you'll probably get most of whatever roleplay and character establishment you want from that anyway!

What's your current idea of how to tempt them to Spellhold? Do you think they'll go after Irenicus just on the strength of "he knows something about 1/2 of us" or even just pure revenge?

[J-H]

-Revenge. Despite 2 Harpers, everyone in the party is neutral-aligned.
-He's obviously the BBEG who has hurt a lot of people.
-Bhaal dreams tempting them that way
-Yoshimo (if he is around at all) will push towards "You don't leave enemies like that alone to plot unhindered."
-With a sorcerer in the party, they will have to deal with the Cowled Wizards. In game, if you follow the right dialog trees (especially if you get the Planar Sphere stronghold), the CWs admit that they've lost contact with Spellhold and something is going on there.
The Harpers can also provide impetus if needed.

I think I am going to skip Rielev and the things in the tanks near the beginning... they don't ever play into anything later, just provide hints about the 1st level, and are pretty dark. I also am a lazy DM and don't want to deal with them trying to re-enter Irenicus' dungeon later to "free" or "save" the tank people, who otherwise just get left to die as the systems run down over the following years. There's enough darkness going on without adding that.

It looks like I'll be statting out lesser/medium/greater Harper Pins.

We have zero heavy armor users, and if the ranger goes Dexterity, nobody using all the fun non-finesse weapons except whatever NPC they pick. I'm kind of wondering if they'll end up settling on Korgan Bloodaxe.

editI may change a few longswords to rapiers.