I think I first started playing the Baldur’s Gate games back in 1999, and was thrilled to find a computer RPG based on Dungeons and Dragons, which I’d been playing with friends for years. At the time, I hadn’t played a D&D based video game since the gold box series on my Commodore 64.

Flash to nearly a decade later. I’m finally at the end of Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal. During the intervening years, I’ve played through the original Baldur’s Gate twice, played halfway through Icewind Dale, played the entirety of Icewind Dale 2 co-op with my wife, and played Baldur’s Gate 2 at least twice. But I’d never tried either of the expansions.

Right now, I’m sitting at the conclusion of it all. About a year ago, I started over playing Baldur’s Gate 2 from the beginning. I fondly remember holding my 4-month-old daughter on my lap while clearing out a mind flayer lair. I played all the way through and continued on to the Throne of Bhaal expansion, which I’d never tried before. At some point, I had to turn down the difficulty from Core Rules to Normal, cause while I can generally manage to take down the drow priestesses and beholder eye tyrants, the vampiric illithids and pit fiends get a bit difficult.

Two nights ago, I was ready for the game’s final boss. Given that I’d fought my way to the bottom of Watcher’s Keep, killed demi-liches, Hive Mothers, and Y’Tossi, I thought I was up to the challenge posed by the game’s conclusion. But after I’d driven back the final boss, and then fought a group of henchmen, I re-confronted the big baddie and quickly lost everyone in my party except my wild mage. Consulting a walkthrough, I found that I’d lost during the third of what appears to be seven huge battles I’d have to get through without resting or saving the game.

So last night, I spent over an hour re-distributing magic items to party members, carefully considering spell triggers and chain contingencies, and choosing just the right spells to fight these seven battles. In the end, I went with a lot of summoning and protection. I’m no stranger to Dungeons and Dragons, or to strategy of this sort, so I felt well-equipped.

Restarting the fight, I got through the first four battles pretty easily. But during the fifth, the boss teleported behind a giant column of light where I couldn’t see her. To clarify for those who haven’t played this game to its conclusion, this is the kind of battle where you should just focus on the big guy, because upon the boss’s death all the minions disappear, and if you kill them earlier more minions magically appear anyway. I was doing fairly well with that tactic until the stupid column of light got in my way.

Fighting behind that column of light, I couldn’t see my characters, and when they started to get wounded I couldn’t see who I needed to move in order to give wounded characters a clear escape route to run to papa Anomen for a heal spell.

So Minsc got killed. A minute later, Keldorn and Sarevoc followed suit. I figured if I could just tough out this fight, I could resurrect them before the next battle, then use that wish scroll to rest the party before the sixth fight, which is supposedly the hardest. I never got there. The boss threw some of those stupid beehive dart things at me – the ones that do damage every second for twenty seconds or so? It stopped my wild mage from doing pretty much anything other than falling down dead.

So I figure I’ll give it one more shot before I give up completely and just turn down the difficulty. Anyone have any suggestions? The online FAQs give no real good advice for this particular battle.

If you’re interested in reading about Baldur’s Gate related stuff, you should check out the Mr. Binky column Brandon wrote a while back on the subject: Remembering Baldur’s Gate