Exploits

Exploits are the intentional abuse of game mechanics in a way unintended by the developers. Baldur's Gate and Infinity Engine games are no exception, having bugs and glitches even in their fully patched versions.
== Philosophy ==
Use of these and similar exploits result in a gameplay experience that tends to be extremely silly and immersion breaking. When used in moderation they can be amusing for some players, though allowing the player in-game options for breaking and surpassing the limits set by BioWare will likely result in less than challenging or satisfying results in the long run. Furthermore, due to more recent patches many of these exploits are no longer available in the most recent versions of the games. Much of the content of this page remains as a curious and somewhat amusing collection of outdated information with dubious value. See Game Terminology and Exploit for further information.
== All time exploits ==
Exploits were present as of EE v2.3.673 as well as pre-EE games, with a few exceptions. Many of these will not work with more recent versions of the game.
===Any Protagonist Can Have a Familiar===
To be able to perform this exploit, it's necessary to play in multiplayer mode (which anyone can do by themselves, despite the name), then:
-Start the game with a Mage (of the alignment that corresponds to the familiar you want) protagonist with the spell Find Familiar memorized.
-Cast the spell.
-Click the "reform party" button, delete the Mage character and create another protagonist.
With this, any class is able to have a familiar, with the only limitations being that: a) you don't get the bonus HP from casting the spell and b) you can't put the familiar in your bag, as that will make it disappear.
===Armored, Shape Changed and Disabled Spell Casting Trick===
Mages wearing armor can still cast spells via a hotkey. This only works for spells with an AOE target such as Dispel Magic or Haste; or a ground target such as Skull Trap or Animal Summoning.
The same trick also works on shape changes from Shapeshift, Shapechange, Polymorph Self, etc. It also works with some spells that disable casting such as Champion's Strength and Seeking Sword but not Tenser's Transformation or Wraithform. Again, the spell must have an AOE target such as Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting or a ground target such as Summon Deva.
===Attack During Shadowstep===
A Shadowdancer (or a character using the Rod of Shadowstep) with two different items that increase attacks per round is able to attack during Shadowstep. For example, Belm in the mainhand and Kundane in the offhand; Boomerang Dagger (melee mode, not throwing) in the mainhand and Belm in the offhand; or Ninjatō of the Scarlet Brotherhood in the offhand and Gauntlets of Extraordinary Specialization in the glove slot. Equipping only one of said items doesn't work and neither does equipping one item and applying Haste.
A character under the effects of Haste gains +1 APR. Under Improved Haste, APR is doubled. 
All attacks will land regardless of THAC0 because you're under the effect of Time Stop.
The character can still backstab during Shadowstep if they are backstab capable.
One practical SOA build is to dual class from Shadowdancer to Fighter at level 10, gaining 2 uses of Shadowstep per day. As a fighter, allocate proficiencies into main and off hand weapon styles to reach Specialized for an additional 0.5 APR. Two-Weapon style is optional because it only improves THAC0 which is ignored during Shadowstep. At level 7, a fighter has a base APR of 3/2 while at level 13, a base APR of 2. Dual wielding grants 1 additional APR so to reach 5 APR only 2 proficiency points in your main weapon style is required. With Improved Haste, 10 APR is easily reached during Shadowstep.
A high-level alternative build is to use a Shadowdancer/Fighter and abuse the save/reload exploit that allows one to cast (Greater) Whirlwind along with other abilities in the same round to be able to: cast Whirlwind, save, reload and use Shadowstep, allowing up to 10 APR during Shadowstep. One may even further abuse the save/reload exploit to Whirlwind, Greater Deathblow and then Shadowstep, for example.
Moreover, in BG1EE and SoD, a Shadowdancer of at least level 5 (to gain first use of Shadowstep) dualed to a Fighter is able to attack once during Shadowstep if equipped with The Chesley Crusher halberd which sets APR to 1.
It is also possible to combine this exploit with the cleaving mechanic/bug mentioned in the "attacks per round" page to perform upwards of 13 APR during Shadowstep.
Shadowstep is a class ability and can be replenished with the Replenish Class Special Abilities exploit. This allows the Shadowdancer to remain in Shadowstep perpetually except for a brief window between casts in which an active Shadowstep prevents another from being cast.
=== Avoiding/Interrupting Enemy Spells ===
Spells cast by enemy mages can be avoided or interrupted by changing area maps while they cast or the projectile is in the air. For example, if a mage begins casting the Horror spell and your party is next to a building/area exit, you can change areas and avoid it. There are limitations to this technique, namely that the less number of members in your party, the easier it will be to change areas (and vice versa). It's also easier for spells with a long cast time or slow projectile. For fast spells/projectiles like Magic MIssile, it can be tricky to do unless using boosts to movement speed, eg Paws of the Cheetah or Oil of Speed. 
 In the base game, this exploit works particularly well for breaking the AI of enemy assassins using disabling spells, such as Neira. 
===Become a Fire-spitting Avenger and/or a character capable of using Psionic Blasts===
Tested in BG2EE 2.6, but does not work in BG1EE 2.6.
To use these two similar exploits you're gonna need a cursed weapon and a character who can equip them. But the Psionic character exploit also requires a wild mage or some means of getting a wild surge (such as casting spells in an area affected by wild magic). Both exploits can be combined into an Avenger who can spit fire and use psionic blasts, if you want.
To perform each exploit follow these steps **exactly**:
a) Fire-spitting Avenger:
-Equip a cursed weapon, like the Backbiter spear.
-Try to shapeshift into a Fire Salamander, which will fail, as you can't replace the cursed weapon with the Fire Salamander's spear, however, you'll still be able to use the Fireball Breath attack (which recharges on rest). Your character might appear to have no weapon equipped, however.
-Try to change weapons via the in-game weapon slots (not in the inventory screen), so that your character will now visually hold the spear again, if they weren't before (do it anyway, just in case).
-Remove the curse by using temple services or a party member who can cast Remove Curse.
-You should now be able to use your character freely with any weapon, as a human (or other race), while still maintaining the Fireball Breath ability and its uses will even recharge on rest.
b) Psionic character:
-Equip a cursed weapon, like the Backbiter spear or the Two-handed Sword of Berserking.
-**With another character**, cast Shapechange while close to your cursed party member until you get either Wild Surge #6, #48 or #90, so that the spell affects the cursed party member instead of or in addition to the caster. Again, **this must be done with another party member, not the cursed one**.
-With the cursed party member, try to shapechange into a Mindflayer, which will fail, as you can't replace the cursed weapon with the Mindflayer's natural attack, however, you'll still be able to use the Psionic Blast (which recharges on rest). Your character might appear to have no weapon equipped, however.
-Try to change weapons via the in-game weapon slots (not in the inventory screen), so that your character will now visually hold the cursed weapon again, if they weren't before (do it anyway, just in case).
-Rest, so that the Shapechange time runs out. You should still have access to Psionic Blast and should be visually holding the cursed weapon.
-Remove the curse by using temple services or a party member who can cast Remove Curse.
-Create a new magical weapon for your cursed party member. Either do this by using a spell like Ghoul Touch, if they can cast spells, or, if they're not spellcaster, use wild magic again to give the cursed party member the created weapon via Wild Surge #6, #48 or #90.
-Rest, so that the created weapon expires.
-You should now be able to use your character freely with any weapon, as a human (or other race), while still maintaining the Psionic Blast ability and its uses will even recharge on rest.
BE AWARE, however, that some kinds of polymorphing/shapeshifting can remove these abilities. So, if that happens, you're going to need to perform the exploit again.
===Black Blade of Disaster Dual Class Trick===
Black Blade of Disaster sets Long Sword proficiency to 5 points for the duration of the spell. In BG2EE (verified in v2.6.6), a character that initiates Dual Class under the effect of Black Blade of Disaster permanently retains 5 points in Long Sword proficiency. (Caveat: there appears to be a bug where sometimes the 5 point proficiency bonus is not granted by Black Blade of Disaster. It's unclear why this happens.)
This exploit can be combined with an item that produces wild surges, such as The Brick, or a Wild Mage, under wild surges #6, #48 or #90 to apply BBD all party members (See the section on Party-wide self-cast spells), giving any class that initiates a Dual Class 5 points in Long Sword proficiency, although Clerics and Druids cannot make use of long swords without Use Any Item, leaving only a handful of viable combinations, such as Assassin dual class to Mage.
One of the problems with this trick is the availability of the Black Blade of Disaster scroll, which only comes in Chapter 6 of Shadows of Amn - probably later than the point a character may want to dual-class, unless the player rushes the main storyline to avoid overlevelling -, combined with the fact Sorcerers can only get the spell at level 18+. With that said, it's possible to access this trick much earlier in the game, without the scroll or a high level Sorcerer, through a certain convoluted method:
* Acquire The Brick and a party member who can use it
* Acquire a scroll of Project Image (you can get one via random drops, like from killing the Cowled Wizards), as well as a party member who can use it (or use the "Familiar and Charmed Thieves' Use Any Items Trick")
* Start Jaheira's personal quest and save right before meeting Terminsel (cause you're gonna need to get lucky and, in fact, you should save as often as you can during the next steps)
* Cast Project Image while affected by the Brick's aura of wild magic and hope for Wild Surges #6, #48 or #90, so that Terminsel is cloned (keep in mind that being hasted makes the Brick's wild magic aura apply much more often, to make this easier)
* Charm Terminsel's clone (it works because clones don't carry over undroppable pieces of equipment, such as the ones used by the devs to give enemies most of their immunities)
* Have Terminsel's clone, who knows every spell in the game, cast Black Blade of Disaster while affected by the Brick's aura of wild magic and hope for Wild Surges #6, #48 or #90 so that nearby characters get their own Black Blade of Disaster
* Dual-class with your desired character to make the longsword grandmastery permanent
===Black Raven Monastery Trick===
In Heart of Fury mode in Icewind Dale 2, you can give your entire party HoF-style bonuses by saving and then loading while one of the characters is in one of the chambers in the monk trials at the Black Raven Monastery. When you reload that save, everyone but the character taking the test will have +10 to all stats, +12 to all levels, and triple HP plus 80 on top (and maybe some AB, AC, and save bonuses). Characters with levels about 24 or so will also be able to level up one last time, adding about 230 levels to any class they currently have no levels in. It's generally best to choose rogue or monk for this last level up, as these classes grant 230d6 sneak attack damage for the rogue and 50 SR, +10 AC, and Stunning Blow and Quivering Palm abilities with save DC's over 100, granting a 95% success rate for each one.
There is no way to make these bonuses stack.
===Blind Thief Trick===
Thieves cannot hide or set traps when enemies are near. However, this only applies to the thief's field of vision. A blind thief has a restricted field of vision and can therefore hide in plain sight like a Shadowdancer or even set traps in the middle of combat, provided that no enemies are directly next to him or her.
Before EE, thieves could hide when blind even when enemies were near, but not set traps (though this may be a testing error).
The blind thief trick will even allow you to save or rest in the presence of enemies, though combat must have ended.
There are many abilities which cause Blinded. For example, it is also possible to cast Blindness on the thief, provided their saving throws are low enough to fail. However, not all abilities have the same duration. Of all abilities, those with notably long duration are: Blindness and Sun Soulbeam which both last 10 turns (2 hours).
In BG2EE, there are 3 ways to apply blindness indefinitely without the duration expiring:
# Fight Faldorn at the Druid's circle without choosing the option to duel her. She will cast Nature's Beauty which applies permanent blindness (removed only with Neutralize Poison, Cure Disease, Heal or Dispel/Remove Magic).
# Remove a druid from your party who has Nature's Beauty memorized. (The next part requires precise timing and possibly multiple reloads.) Apply Charm Person on the druid. Before Charm wears off, begin casting Nature's Beauty. They should turn hostile before the spell finishes causing nearby members to be permanently blinded (or die if they fail the save). To return the druid to your party, simply charm them, then initiate a dialog to return to the party.
#Acquire the Deck of Many Things and pull the "Talons" card which will curse you with a permanent blindness that, unlike the other two methods, can only be removed via Remove Curse, so no ally or enemy can remove it accidentally via Dispel/Remove Magic. It's a more costly method, but also "more permanent".
===Casting a single higher level spell than you're supposed to with a Simulacrum clone===
Tested with a Shaman using Vhailor's Helm. As of a later patch, this is not longer possible except with spells that have no cast time such as Spell Immunity, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, etc.
Simulacrums clones are level-drained on spawn and, as such, might lose access to some spell levels that your original character has access to (e.g., a Sorcerer can cast spells of level 9, but their Simulacrum clone can't); however, if you pause the game immediately after creating the clone or enable the auto-pause after spell is cast option, you'll notice that the clone will still have access to some of those higher level spells, as the game seems to progressively "drain" spell casts instead of getting rid of them at once.
So if you create a clone and pause the game quickly you can begin to cast one of those higher level spells that the Simulacrum clone isn't supposed to have access to. But, afterwards, the spell selection will be as normal for a clone, so this really only works for a single cast.
===Casting Infinite Spells with Permanent Alacrity as a Wild Mage===
In BG2EE v2.6, Wild Mages can exploit a hotkey for Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to gain permanent Alacrity to their spells and cast any number of learned spells (they are still subject to Wild Surges.)
To perform this trick, bind a hotkey to Nahal's Reckless Dweomer and ensure it is memorized at least twice. Press the hotkey twice in succession. The toolbar menu showing spells granted by Nahal's Reckless Dweomer needs to be open when you press the hotkey the second time. Now cast any spell from the toolbar menu and the menu should not disappear, allowing you to cast infinite spells. All spells cast this way still have casting time but have no casting delay between spells.
This trick works with clones, notably Mislead clones created by the Wild Mage despite Mislead preventing the casting of spells.
===Casting Infinite Spell Immunity with Permanent Alacrity===
Similar to the above trick, Spell Immunity has a toolbar menu that can be exploited to apply spell immunity for all types, e.g. Invocation, Divination, etc. Bind a hotkey to Spell Immunity and memorize at least two instances of Spell Immunity. Cast Spell Immunity twice, making sure the toolbar menu is open before casting it the second time. The menu should not disappear and you will be able to cast all types with alacrity.
This trick works with clones, notably Mislead clones despite Mislead preventing the casting of spells. Spell Immunity: Divination is especially useful for preventing clones from being dispelled.
===Casting Infinite Summon Spirit Animals with Permanent Alacrity===
Similar to the above trick, in EE, the Totemic Druid ability, Summon Spirit Animal, uses a toolbar menu to select a spirit animal type to summon. This ability does not have a listed hotkey but can be cast twice in succession with the help of an AI script. Using your favorite script editor (e.g. NearInfinity), create a script with the following:
IF
	HotKey(D)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		Spell(Myself,TOTEMIC_DRUID_SUMMON_SPIRIT_ANIMAL) // SPCL621.SPL (Summon Spirit Animal)
END
With party AI turned on, assign this script to your Totemic Druid. Clicking 'd' will cast Summon Spirit Animal. Ensure you can cast Summon Spirit Animal at least twice. Cast Summon Spirit Animal and once the spirit animal type selection toolbar menu is shown, cast it a second time. You should now be able to cast infinite spirit animals without casting delay between. You are still subject to summon limits.
Most spirit animals have attacks that count as +6 weapons; it's not clear if this buff was intended between the original BG2 and BG2EE.
===Charmed Enemy Clones===
Due to engine limitations, clones (such as those created by Mislead, Project Image and Simulacrum) do not get items marked as undroppable. Such items are very often utilized by the developers to attach immunities to creatures, like the DRAGRING.ITM item that gives most dragons their basic draconic immunities or the LICH.ITM item that gives Liches their Lich-specific immunities.
So, what this means is that enemy clones often lack the immunities of their base creatures, making it possible to, say, charm Vongoethe's Simulacrum clone or any Lich's Mislead clone with the Staff of Command (that normally can't affect undead with its great no-save charm ability).
Far more interestingly, however, this means that the player can take advantage of Wild Surge #6 and #90 (that make any spell target all creatures in an area around the caster) or Wild Surge #48 (that changes the target randomly) to, for example, create a Saladrex Simulacrum clone that lacks draconic immunities, meaning it can be charmed to effectively give you control of a (slightly less powerful) dragon to fight the real thing. Technically-speaking, this could even be used to create a charmable Demogorgon clone, but one must keep in mind that this "offensive" use of Simulacrum and other clone spells is affected by Magic resistance and, unlike with most dragons, Demogorgon starts the fight hostile, so there's little time to try to roll any of those three Wild Surge outcomes.
===Clones===
Clones are copies of the character created via the wizard spells Simulacrum or Project Image, or by using Vhailor's Helm to cast Simulacrum, or by the Shadowdancer ability Shadow Twin. A character can only have one clone from each spell but clones can clone themselves (no longer possible with Simulacrum in BG2EE 2.6, only with Shadow Twin).
==== Innate Abilities ====
Clones can use any innate ability the caster possessed at the time of casting. A level 10 clone may still use all of the original level 20 character's HLAs, and a character under the effects of Polymorph Self or Shapechange will generate a clone that can also use those shapeshifting abilities (this no longer appears to be the case in BG2EE v2.6.6). If a Project Image clone shapeshifts, it can even attack while shapeshifted, which Project Image clones are not supposed to be able to do.
==== Quick Items Trick ====
When a clone is created, it gets a copy of the original character's equipment and quick slot items. The clone can use these items without affecting the originals. This includes scrolls, wands, the special abilities of equipped items, and so on.
For example, prior to engaging a Lich (or other powerful magic user) a character can load a Protection from Magic scroll into a quick slot and then create a clone. The moment the Lich appears, the clone can use the scroll on it, thus preventing the Lich's spell based attacks. Only the clone's copy of the scroll is consumed; the character's original copy remains intact.
Clones created by Mislead cannot attack because their APR is set to 0. If the caster equips an item that grants APR before casting Mislead, the clone will be able to perform attacks.
==== Traps ====
The trap limit of 7 traps per map does not apply to clones. Project Image and Simulacrum clones can lay an unlimited number of traps on any map; however, leaving the area may change the allegiance of the trap so monsters killed by the trap no longer count towards the party or grant experience.
===Clone up to 6 Project Images===
In BG2EE v2.6.6, a strange new bug allows a character to have up to 6 Project Image clones at the same time. The price for performing it is the consumption of a Project Image scroll each time. While it is possible to farm infinite Project Image scrolls (see Random Treasure) or create them through Wild Surge: #40, 41 and 82, the drop-rate is very low, making it impractical.
To perform this exploit, memorize at least 1 Vocalize and place a scroll of Project Image and the Wand of Lightning on quick slot. Alternate between 2 different non-self targets with the 6 Wand of Lightning targets (see section Wand of Lightning Trick) then swap the item slot with the Project Image scroll. The character should cast 1 of 6 Project Image then be held by the Project Image spell. (If the animation or combat log show more than Project Image 1 instance being cast, try again and pick different targets further apart from each other.) Using the newest clone, target the held character with all 6 Wand of Lightning targets, then cast Vocalize. The held character will briefly be unheld and cast 1-3 more Project Image instances. Using the newest clone(s), repeat casting Vocalize using the Wand of Lightning trick on the held caster until all 6 Project Image instances are cast. You now have 6 Project Image clones.
Instead of Vocalize, other self-target spells work as well such as Armor, Ghost Armor, Improved Alacrity, Detect Inivisibility, Time Stop, etc. 
It is unclear why this exploit works, if there are betters ways to perform it and in which version of BG2EE 2.x was it introduced.
===Cones become Novas===
Whenever a spell or ability shaped like a cone (such as Burning Hands, Cone of Cold, Prismatic Spray, the Dragon Disciple's fire breath or even a Wand of Frost's faux-Cone of Cold) is aimed precisely at its caster, said caster is not facing exactly left or right (any other direction seems fine, down-left, up-right, up, down etc.) and the caster is not walking, the cone will instead turn into a nova, releasing the effect all around the caster.
There are two simple ways to "aim" precisely at yourself:
-Cast the spell by targeting the caster's portrait.
-Cast via Contingency or Chain Contingency with the target 'myself'.
If the caster is targeted, but they are facing exactly left or right, then the cone comes out normally, but aimed at the direction opposite the one the caster is facing.
===Cursed Weapons and Shapeshift in BG1EE===
Tested in version 2.6.
BG1EE handles cursed weapons + polymorphing differently compared BG2EE and, instead of preventing the actual polymorph effect from happening, in BG1EE you gain the benefits of polymorph while still attacking with the cursed weapon. So, for example, if you have the Backbiter (spear +3 that damages the user a little bit) equipped as an Avenger and polymorph into a Sword Spider you get the spider's permanent haste effect, its 4 attacks per round etc., but your attacks are still made with the spear, so instead of doing 2d6 damage you'll do 1d6+3 (plus bonuses from weapon proficiency/styles), but also take 3 damage on every hit.
===Drow Gear Safe Delivery Outside the Underdark===
In Shadows of Amn, the only area where the game checks for drow gear (to destroy it) is in the Underdark Exit, where you're interrogated by elves. So, to keep drow gear safe from being destroyed, all one needs to do is bypass this area.
A neutral alignment familiar is commonly used for this purpose, but not many characters can have one (exclusive to Bards, Mages, Thieves with Use Any Item and Sorcerer bhaalspawn), so other characters can instead use party members to deliver the gear safely past the area, like this:
-Leave the gear you want in the Underdark.
-Go outside and let all the cutscenes play out.
-Go back into the Underdark and pick up the gear you left on the floor with one party member.
-Go outside again and pause immediately after the area loads, before any message appears saying the items were destroyed by sunlight.
-Kick the party member who's holding the drow gear from the party and send them to the Copper Coronet (or whatever other place they go to).
-Go to the Copper Coronet (or other area) and have them rejoin the party. The drow gear will in their inventory and safe from destruction, as long as you never go to the Underdark Exit with it.
A third way to perform this exploit has no requirements whatsoever - no need for familiars or party members -, but is only available in the Enhanced Edition, due to the use of its quickloot mechanic. Simply pause immediately after the narration announcing the new chapter is over, drop all Drow gear on the ground (where it's not affected, as the game only searches for gear on your party) and then move away. Then, pause again and quickloot, but drop the gear at your feet while the game is still paused. Repeat until you're positioned at the area transition and then quickloot, click to move to another area and unpause. If you're positioned correctly at the area transition, you'll get away safely with the gear, but keep in mind that the same process must be repeated at the Drizzt "ambush" area (as it's one of the few that check for Drow gear in Shadows of Amn) - or you can simply trigger that event before performing the exploit.
Keep in mind, however, that the items will still be destroyed once you reach Throne of Bhaal, as the game checks constantly for drow gear when you're in that campaign. But you can at least use them during the rest of Shadows of Amn (good for when you rush to chapter 6 without doing many sidequests) and while going through Watcher's Keep.
=== Dual Class Proficiency Restriction Bypass ===
Weapon proficiency restrictions are determined by class. For dual class characters, the active class determines the restrictions. For example, when the active class of a Thief/Fighter is Fighter, Grandmastery (5 points) of Long Sword is available. When the active class of a Fighter/Thief is a Thief, only Proficient (1 point) of Long Sword is available.
It is possible to bypass the proficiency restrictions of the secondary class by delaying the "Level Up" action until the primary class becomes active again. Once this happens, proficiencies gained from the secondary class can be allocated as if it were the primary class.
An example is a Kensai who dual classes at level 13 to Thief and avoids the "Level Up" action until the Thief reaches level 14. Once reached, the accumulated proficiency points (5 points by level 14) of the Thief can be allocated towards a proficiency as if it were a Kensai, such as reaching Grandmastery of Long Sword by spending 5 points.
===Dual Wielding Without Penalties===
In BG2EE, holding a magical weapon such as Flame Blade, Seeking Sword, Phantom Blade, Black Blade of Disaster, etc., with an off-hand weapon is not subject to Two Weapon style penalties. Normally, the main/off-hand THAC0 penalty is +4/+8 (0 points), +2/+6 (1 point), +0/+4 (2 points) and +0/+2 (3 points). Dual wielding with a magical weapon is even better than having 3 points in Two Weapon style; it has no THAC0 penalty, +0/+0, on either hands. Even more strange, Single Weapon style proficiency applies instead. (There are visual display errors in the inventory and character screen for these stats but can be verified in combat). In summary, the bonuses are:
* +1 APR for dual wielding
* No THAC0 penalties
* +1/2 AC from Single Weapon style
* Critical hit roll on 19 on both main and off-hand from Single Weapon style
===Duplicate Items through Import/Export Trick===
In multiplayer mode, you can duplicate items by exporting a character with, say, Celestial Fury, then dropping Celestial Fury, going into Character Arbitration, deleting the character, and importing the character you just exported. The character will have an extra copy of Celestial Fury and can pick up the original from the ground. This can duplicate any item besides containers and quest items, as they cannot be exported.
===Duplicate Items when Rasaad Leaves===
When companions leave for quest reasons, they return all quest items in their inventory to the party. In BG2EE, Rasaad's script is bugged and he returns quest items twice if convinced to permanently leave the party at the end of his personal questline in SoA. This can used to duplicate items marked with the flag Critical Item, which typically are quest items. This exploit will not work if you dismiss him, he has to leave through this quest.
Items that have the flag Critical Item and can be duplicated include but are not limited to:
* Flail of Ages
* Ring of Gaxx
* Harper Pin
* Illithium Ore
* Rift Device
* Blackrazor
* Silver Sword
*Mask of King Strohm III
*Deck of Many Things (will disappear immediately on second use)
*Embarl's Dagger
*Renfeld's Body
*Moon Dog Figurine
*Blood of a Silver Dragon
*Drow Piwafwi Cloak
*Control Circlet
While you can duplicate containers using this glitch, the contents inside are not duplicated. If you take an item from one container it will take the item from the duplicated container too. This is probably due to how the containers are coded. The content is stored somewhere and the container only serves as a gateway to access it. By duplicating the container, you only dupe the gateway and not the content. Duplicating containers is essentially useless since the original and their copies share the same content but take up additional space.
===Duplicate the Book of Infinite Spells, the Rod of Lordly Might and Ras, the Dancing Blade===
In BG2EE, the Book of Infinity Spells and the Rod of Lordly Might can be duplicated by equipping them to a character which can cast Simulacrum. While the item is on the Simulacrum, change the mode of the item to the one that creates a new version of it (i.e., turning the pages with the book or creating a weapons with the rod), then kill the Simulacrum. The item will be found on the corpse of the Simulacrum.
Similarly, Ras, the Dancing Blade can also be duplicated by activating the sword's ability with a Simulacrum clone, waiting for the 4 rounds duration to end, and then killing the clone.
===EE Shapechange Trick===
In EE, it's possible to grant a character permanent access to any of the wizard shapeshifts. Basically, you have to shapeshift into the form you want just as the spell's duration is running out. Shapeshifting takes 1.2 seconds, and both spells take tens of rounds to run out, so the timing is difficult (shapeshift continuously to count the rounds). This won't work with the Amulet of Power or Robe of Vecna, and is easier if your character is slowed. The Flail of Ages, Ardulia's Fall, or a jelly attack from another mage can all slow your character. Also, it helps to turn on the Auto-Pause: Spell Cast setting and save your game before the spell is about to run out so you can reload and try again without waiting the full duration.
The way it works is that shapeshifting removes and then restores your shapeshifting abilities, but the spell itself removes your shapeshifting powers, without restoring them, after x number of seconds have passed. But if you shapeshift after x-1 seconds, you will begin the shapeshift before you lose it, and complete it after the base spell attempts to take it away, which restores your shapeshifting ability.
This has limits, however. If you use it to gain permanent access to ogre form via the Polymorph Self spell, you can't gain permanent access to spider form, also from the Polymorph Self spell, without losing the ogre form. This is because the Polymorph Self spell removes the ogre, jelly, flind, spider, wolf, brown bear, and black bear shapeshifts all at once, but you can only carry one of them past the spell duration. Likewise, you can't get permanent access to both Iron Golem and Mind Flayer form, since they both come from Shapechange. You can, however, get an Iron Golem form from Shapechange and a spider form from Polymorph Self.
This trick is different from the other permanent shapechange/polymorph self trick that uses wild surges. This trick let's you retain the special abilities to shapechange/polymorph self and return to human form while the other trick eventually removes them but leaves the character transformed. This can be useful for caster classes which need to be able to switch between human form and non-human form or on the protagonist character who initiates dialogue often. (Non-human forms cannot initiate dialogue). That said, both tricks are not mutually exclusive. You can use the wild surge trick to give classes, such as pure warriors and clerics, who normally don't have access to shapechange/polymorph self the ability to transform then apply this trick to let them permanently retain those abilities to transform back and forth between forms.
In Shadows of Amn, purchasing Limited Wish, obtainable early from Lady Yuth, and selecting the "I wish to be anything I desire." (Wisdom ≥ 6) choice can permanently grant a single shapechange form to a character. Most shapechange abilities are extremely powerful at all stages of SOA. The Mind Flayer's attack to devour intelligence can be used to kill difficult enemies such as liches. The mind flayer also has an area-of-effect psionic blast ability that refreshes each time the caster shapechanges into the mind flayer, essentially granting an infinitely repeatable hold spell every 2 rounds. The Greater Wolfwere regenerates 8hp/sec and 16hp/sec under haste, making it a formidable damage sponge. Lastly, the Iron Golem is immune to most elemental types and resistant to physical damage. Its attack deals a whooping 4d10 + strength bonus and can be used to backstab. Thus, a thief can permanently gain Iron Golem and human forms at the beginning of SOA and become a backstabbing juggernaut.
Before EE, there is a simpler method involving killing the character in question (see Shapechange Trick in classic section below).
===Exceeding the summon limit===
The summon limit only applies to characters in your party and their clones, so you can have more than 5 regular summons (or more than 1 special summon like Planetars), by:
a) Summoning creatures with charmed enemies; or
b) Removing a party member, charming them and then casting a bunch of summoning spells (or using summoning items), before adding the character back to the party.
=== Experience Loops ===
An experience loop is an event or set of actions that can be repeated for experience.
==== Imprisonment and Freedom ====
Imprisoned enemies are not slain by Imprisonment yet they still grant experience. By repeately imprisoning then freeing an enemy with Freedom, the party can gain the experience rewards over and over again. This is best done with a high experience value enemy that is not immune to Imprisonment.
==== Farming Summons ====
Depending on the version of the game, a summoned creature, or gated creature in the game files that has assigned "experience points for kill" in that associated field within the .CRE file will provide experience points when the creature is killed. The game is very inconsistent with this assigned experience for value. Some examples: A gated Pit Fiend (DEMPITSU.CRE) provides no experience for a kill. A summoned Hobgoblin Elite from the summon spell or wand of summoning also provide no experience. A Deva, Planetar, Fallen Deva or Fallen Planetar may provide experience depending on the version of the game. It is, unfortunately a broken exploit. The game clearly did not intend for the player to summon a Deva and then kill it's own allied creature to gain experience. The Deva, for example, will not even become hostile while you farm it for experience.
==== Fire Giants ====
By placing archers close to the walls of Saradush and either using the vanilla game's Guard function (see Guarding with Ranged Weapons) or applying the right AI script, your archers can shoot Fire Giants just beyond the walls, out of sight, and yield experience at no risk.
==== Pet Basilisk Strategy ====
You can charm a basilisk using Algernon's Cloak from BG1. If you cast Protection from Petrification on the basilisk after charming it, you can use the pet basilisk to clear out Mutamin's Garden much faster than missile weapons, especially in Legacy of Bhaal mode.
You can also gain even more experience than would normally be possible in Mutamin's Garden using Stone to Flesh scrolls. After clearing out most of the area, charm a Lesser Basilisk (approach from behind and flee if it doesn't work), cast Protection from Petrification on it, and then have it petrify a Greater Basilisk. Then, before the Lesser Basilisk can attack again and shatter the Greater Basilisk, order it to stop and use a Stone to Flesh scroll on the petrified basilisk. You can then re-petrify it for another 7000 experience for every Stone to Flesh scroll you have. You can buy 19 scrolls from the temples at the Friendly Arm Inn and near Beregost for a total of 38 even before you reach Baldur's Gate (where even more scrolls are for sale). It's by far the fastest way of gaining experience in BG1, and requires little money and virtually no risk.
==== Wand of Wonder ====
The Wand of Wonder can petrify a target without saves. It can be used on dragons or Kangaxx the Demilich to immediately petrify them, granting a large amount of experience. Note, this only works on Kangaxx in Demilich, his final form and not his initial form as a Lich. To unpetrify the target, use Stone to Flesh. Placing the Wand of Wonder and a scroll of Stone to Flesh on a clone allows this trick to be repeated without consuming charges or scrolls.
To be clear, when the Wand of Wonder fires a charge, a D100 is rolled to determine what effect will be launched. In order to get the petrification effect, the random number generator must roll between 37-48, or it will be a different effect.
Note: In BG2EE the RING95.ITM worn by many creatures including undead, all liches and others prevents the Petrified status effect. Kangaax the Lich (initial form but not his final form) is equipped with the MINHP1.ITM, which also prevents petrification.
==== Hexxat's Quest Line ====
The Tomb of the Unproved (OH7200), part of Hexxat's quest lines, contains a puzzle with square tiles on the floor. Stepping on the "wrong" square tile spawns spiders which grants experience. While the experience gained isn't significant, it can be repeated indefinitely.
===Extra Attacks Per Round (breaking the 10 APR barrier)===
The fabled "Cleave" mechanic talked about since the original Baldur's Gate is none other than an AI scripting bug, sad to say. This trick is easy to perform and isn't restricted to killing blows. In fact, it applies to any character at any level that enables certain scripts when Party-AI is active. Non-hasted characters can reach 5 APR and hasted characters can reach upward of 13 APR rivaling the the Whirlwind ability.
A character's round is reset with certain AI scripts when it selects a target (new or same). A round reset makes the character perform attacks as if it were a new round even if previously in the middle of one. Many actions cause a script to select a target such as the target dying (giving the illusion of Cleaving), after casting a spell, changing weapons, etc. Most actions have a delay before targeting occurs. The shorter the delay, the quicker the character reacts to attack. Some of the actions with the shortest delay are:
* Changing weapons using hotkeys
* Clicking the currently equipped weapon twice using hotkeys
* Group stop (when 2 or more characters/summons are selected)
The easiest way to perform this trick is to assign a character the Advanced AI (enable Attack Enemies and disable all other options) and equip a weapon with low Speed Factor, such as daggers, throwing darts, Belm, etc. Allow the AI script to target an enemy and after each attack animination cause the character to re-target by performing one of three actions above that cause the AI script to select a target. The enemy reticle will go from targeted to untargeted back to targeted. If performed correctly, the character's round will reset and they will attack almost immediately. Repeat this each time the animation lands a hit or would land a hit but misses. 
To achieve beyond 10 APR requires: 
* The quickest Speed Factor possible. (Consult the wiki page on ideas for improving Speed Factor)
* Accelerated character animations through Haste or Improved Haste
* Improved initiative through increased Luck when reacting to commands and rolling for Speed Factor. (Initiative is often disregarded because it has such little effect on the game)
* Precise manual re-targeting of the AI script such that you start a new round exactly when the animation lands a hit or would land a hit but misses
===Extra Speed Weapons===
In the most recent version of EE, magical throwing daggers can be dual-wielded provided that the throwing dagger is kept in the main hand and used as a melee weapon (not as a throwing weapon). Since throwing daggers grant +1 APR even when used as melee weapons, they function as additional speed weapons alongside Belm, Kundane, and the Ninja-to of the Scarlet Brotherhood. In BG2EE, the Boomerang Dagger and Firetooth (dagger) can be used to gain an extra +1 APR. 
In the original BG2, there was another speed weapon: the Shadow Thief Dagger, which you can only get by siding with Bodhi and opting for the "unseemly task" for your second assignment, and which you can only keep by returning to Bodhi to report that you spared the target's life. The Shadow Thief Dagger (STD) sets your APR to 2 rather than increasing it by 1, so it's especially effective in the hands of Project Image clones, but it gets no Strength bonus. However, unlike other speed weapons, it is non-magical and can bypass PFMW.
===Familiar and Charmed Thieves' Use Any Items Trick===
A ferret or cat familiar, or a charmed thief, can pickpocket party members to obtain any usable item (whether they normally go in the quick item slot or not, so anything from potions and scrolls to the Helm of Brilliance) and, after resting or saving/reloading, that item will appear on their quick item slot and be usable, no matter the item's class restriction.
Classes with ferret or cat familiars can easily make use of this, but any other class (except Wizard Slayers) can utilize items like the Nymph Cloak or the Ring of Human Influence to charm a thief and pickpocket a powerful scroll from the party to use in a coming battle, for example, when there are no spellcasters or thieves with Use Any Item in the party. Or this can simply allow a solo character (without access to scrolls) to cast Limited Wish for an early Full Plate +2 or to start the Limited Wish quest, for example.
===Fatigue Removal===
Kicking a character out of the party and bringing them back in will reset their fatigue to 0.
===Ferret/Cat Smuggling===
A ferret or cat familiar can pickpocket party members. If you use it to pickpocket the Rift Device, you can smuggle it out of the sewers without triggering the instant death script and then talk to the familiar to give it back to you. This can also work with drow equipment, which is supposed to disintegrate when you leave the Underdark, but the game does not check the ferret or cat's inventory for the items; only yours.
The Rift Device has the power to reduce the HP of any NPC in the game to 1, and can be used by any class on any target. This will automatically trigger events for bosses that need to be reduced to 1 HP or less, bypassing the formality of battling them.
===Fire Seeds Trick===
Weapons that use area-effect projectiles can apply on-hit effects to more than one enemy at a time. This bypasses weapon immunities and all forms of spell protections. Thus, a character can use any of the following weapons:
* Flasher Master Bruiser Mate (party-friendly)
* Fire Seeds
* Arrow of Detonation
* Scorcher Ammunition (strikes twice, as it uses the Agannazar's Scorcher projectile)
* Frag Grenade
To apply any of the following effects:
* Wizard Slayer spell failure
* Power Attack
* Smite
* (Greater) Deathblow
* Poison Weapon
* Called Shot
To any group of creatures, provided the initial target is not immune to the weapon. Throwing a Fire Seed will fail against a mage with PFMW active, but it can hit the mage if you target a nearby character without PFMW.
===Fire Seeds and Cloak of the Stars Stockpiling===
Fire Seeds and Dart +5 from Cloak of the Stars are temporary and disappear after a few hours. To stockpile them, drop them on the ground or place them in a container, e.g. Dragomir's Respite or Bag of Holding, then rest. Resting will cause the Fire Seeds and Dart +5 to skip the trigger which removes them, letting you stockpile.
To expedite the stockpiling of Dart +5, the Wand of Lightning trick can be used to create 6 times the number of darts. These darts can be sold to a merchant in a pinch for a few hundred gold.
Note: This functions differently in BG2:EE. With testing on the Nintendo Switch version, all that was necessary to keep Fire Seeds was to put them in an Ammo Belt until the spell's duration expires, with no resting required. This makes it fairly effortless to stockpile these if one simply keeps them stored in the belt at all times. By contrast, stacks of Dart +5 stored in an Ammo Belt will become buggy after the expiration time hits, and will ultimately disappear. It is still possible to stockpile these darts, but it requires significantly more maintenance as it involves refreshing their expiration timer by placing old stacks onto new stacks. See the Dart +5 page for more details.
===Fireshield Hot Potato===
With changes in BG2EE v.2.6, two casters both with Fireshield will exchange damage in a very long loop when striking each other in melee. If a caster does not have 100% resistance to fire for Fireshield (Red) or cold for Fireshield (Blue) they will likely die. If a caster has more than 100% resistance, they will likely be fully healed.
These changes to Fireshield give casters a way of quickly killing other casters of Fireshield who do not have enough resistance.
Over 100% fire resistance can be achieved with Batalista's Passport, Protection from Fire or passives from the Dragon Disciple class.
If an enemy doesn't have Fireshield, you can forcefully apply it on them with wild surges #6 and #90, which give all creatures in a small area the effects of the spell. A wild surges from a Wild mage or an item will do. While it's tedious to roll exactly these wild surges, unless the enemy has high fire resistance, they will be one-shotted when you attack them.
===Fog of War Trick===
Technically, this exploit relates to line of sight, but it's often referred to as Fog of War. Some enemies will not react if they suffer damage when the player's characters or summons are not in sight. Thus, you can use AOE spells to attack enemies without them retaliating.
Here's an example use of this trick. A Mage / Thief scouts out an area to find a cluster of stationary enemies and then:
#Finds a spot (preferably in shadow) that is as close to the enemies as possible without being able to see them. 
#Leaves shadows and waits for the ability to cool down. This should be safe since the enemies can't see the character.
#Casts an AOE spell (e.g., Cloudkill, Skull Trap, Fireball, etc.) just inside the edge of their line of sight. Be careful not to target beyond the line of sight or the character will step forward, resulting in their detection. 
#Re-enters stealth before the AOE projectile reaches it's target. If you don't re-enter stealth, there's a possibility when playing EE (and a certainty with SCS) that the enemies will engage the caster. 
Once the Staff of the Magi is obtained, this trick can be performed more efficiently since there's no need to wait on the stealth cooldown, as the staff's wielder can simply unequip/re-equip the staff to restore invisibility.
===Ghoul Touch===
Ghoul Touch is a Level 2 Necromancy Spell that gives a Wizard (or Priest) the ability to paralyze with a touch, but do nothing else. Flaming Fist Battle Wizards often use it as a last resort, and killing them after they've cast Ghoul Touch reveals that the Ghoul Touch hand was accidentally flagged as a drop-able item in Baldur's Gate, so it is almost like being able to equip the rigid hand of the deceased Flaming Fist. Party members who die while using Ghoul Touch will also exhibit this phenomenon.
Although interesting, Ghoul Touch is not a useful weapon even if it can be equipped, as it is treated as a mace and Wizards do not have any proficiency in it. However, if the character is exported to Baldur's Gate II and allowed to bypass the inventory wipe in the Irenicus Dungeon (only available in multiplayer), they will retain the Ghoul Touch in one of their primary weapon slots where it is an effective weapon, capable of dealing damage alongside paralyzing an opponent without time limit. However, it is easily dispelled and is less potent as the game increases in difficulty.
===Guarding with Ranged Weapons===
A character guarding a target retaliates against attackers of said target. Typically, guarding characters move close to the guarded, however if they are equipped with a ranged weapon, they will still retaliate against attackers at a great distance (about two or one-and-a-half screens away seems to be the maximum range), across the fog-of-war and barriers such as walls if the target is currently getting attacked (otherwise the guarding character will try to move towards their target).
One can more easily separate the guarding character from the guarded by making the guarding character over-encumbered or by closing doors, removing any path to the guarded. However, that is unecessary for the exploit to actually work, as, once again, if the target is already getting attacked, the character will use its ranged weapon and only move in a bit closer if outranged with this new much greater range (which means the 'convenience' of encumberance might also prevent the exploit to work, if the character and target are excessively far from each other, in an immense area).
To summarize, a ranged weapon wielder need only chose to guard someone who is getting attacked and they will do so from up to a far greater distance than normal (more or less two screens or one-and-a-half screens away), beyond line of sight and through walls. If they choose to guard someone not currently under attack, they will simply move next to them, as normal.
===Helmet of Opposite Alignment===
Unlike in the original BG, in BGEE the Demon Knight will simply drop this helmet when killed (making exploits to acquire it unnecessary). However, the old trick of simply equipping both this Helmet and the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity and removing the curse to permanently alter your character's alignment won't work (unless extra steps are taken). There are two ways to achieve permanent alignment change in the current EEs:
First, you may cast remove curse, pause the game and check that the items are removed and back in the character's inventory. There will be a small window of time when the items are removed, but the effects are still applied to the character. Place the helm back on the character and allow the spell to resolve. They will have the original gender and alignment, but wearing the cursed helmet. A second remove curse will remove the item and "restore" the character to the opposite alignment permanently.
Another, perhaps, easier/more convenient way (doesn't require precise timing) to permanently alter your alignment with this helmet is to reproduce these exact steps (tested in BGEE version 2.6 with a Blackguard and a Cleric of Talos):
-Equip the Helmet of Opposite Alignment, followed by the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. Your alignment should, as intended, be the opposite of what it originally was.
-Acquire enough experience to level up but do not actually level up, nor change area or save/reload (if you do it before finishing the steps it won't work!). Check your alignment. You should now have your original alignment despite the fact you're still wearing the cursed helmet (and the belt).
-Cast or have someone else cast Remove Curse on your character. Your alignment should now be permanently changed.
To be clear: for some reason, your alignment reverts back to its original state as soon as you acquire enough xp to level up while wearing both cursed items and that allows the Remove Curse spell to "revert" your alignment the wrong way around, just like in the classic exploit.
Yet another way to perform this trick, but this time in a way that's available for characters who already reached the level cap in BGEE, is the following:
-Equip the Helmet of Opposite Alignment, followed by the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity. Your alignment should, as intended, be the opposite of what it originally was.
-Proceed with the character to BG2EE (either import immediately or after beating BGEE, it doesn't matter).
-When the game starts and your equipment is taken, your character's original gender will be restored, but the alignment will remain changed.
In theory, the above trick works by exporting/importing back into BGEE and then having the curse removed, but this path has little practical purpose.
===Hexxat Stun Trick===
Hexxat is immune to nearly all disablers except for Power Word: Stun. The effect interferes with her mist form script, so you can hit her with PW: Stun while she's wounded and she will remain stunned but still invincible thanks to her MINHP1 item.
===Immune to Polymorph Grants Polymorph Weapon while Staying as Human Form===
In BG2EE v.2.6, when trying to Shapechange, Polymorph or change forms while under an effect that grants "Immune to Polymorph", the character remains in their current 'human' form but keeps the form changed weapon, i.e. you stay in human form but retain the weapon of say an Iron Golem.
This means the human form character can cast spells, talk with other characters and stay as a small character model that doesn't get stuck in doorways. 
Unfortunately, very few items or events grant "Immune to Polymorph", e.g., Drow form, granted by Adalon, Imoen's Belt, wild surge polymorph: wolf and Hexxat's Amulet when in mist form. Also, dual-classing while under the effects of any form change reverts back to 'human' form but only briefly until an action is taken.
===Invincible Barbarians and Undead Hunters===
The level 4 arcane spell Otiluke's Resilient Sphere makes a character immune to every spell level, every school of magic, every magical and non-magical weapon, gives them 100% Magic Resistance and immunity to every kind of damage, however, it also sets that character's attacks per round to 0, reduces their movement speed to 0 and holds them with a rarely-used hold effect called Hold creature 2 that's otherwise only used in Hold Undead and a few traps, to bypass normal hold immunity.
But Barbarians and Undead Hunters can get around two of those three negative effects while taking full advantage of the protective effects of Otiluke's Sphere. The character can attack or cast spells, is impervious to damage and almost everything else, and is only unable to walk around:
*Hold creature 2 is made ineffective by the Barbarian Rage or the Undead Hunter's natural immunity, preventing the loss of player control over the character affected by Otiluke's Resilient Sphere.
*The 0 attacks per round penalty can be overriden by equipping a single weapon (confirmed in BG2EE v2.6.6) to give extra attacks per round (for example Kundane, Belm, Boomerang Dagger, Firetooth), or by using an ability like Whirlwind Attack or Greater Whirlwind Attack that sets attacks per round to 10. Ranged weapons such as Boomerang dagger and Firetooth may be preferable since movement is limited.
*The 0 movement speed penalty can be solved with a flat speed boost but not a speed multiplier like that of the The Paws of the Cheetah. But to this wiki's knowledge, only wild surges #20 Legs... so... heavy. and #81 My legs! What have you done? fit this criteria: By lowering speed from 0 to -4, they allow the character to move around at teleporting speed. But getting those wild surges is far too tendious and getting them at will is only an option if the Console cheat keys are used, namely CTRL+H.
Finally, at least in Enhanced Editions, not all effects from the sphere seem to be applied. 100% Magic resistance and immunity to spell levels 1 to 9/10 are missing, but other effects of Otiluke's Sphere ensure that almost all magic will simply not go through at all.
===Invincible Level 1 Tanks===
Level 1 characters cannot die in one hit unless they have 14 HP or higher. They will resist any damage by enough to reduce them to exactly 1 HP (at which point further damage will kill them). This mechanic was included even in the original Baldur's Gate and has carried through into the Enhanced Editions, and applies at all difficulty levels. The fact that level 1 characters can't die in a single hit seems intended to prevent player frustration at being killed so easily, so early into the game. However it resulted in an unintended side effect, which admittedly can be difficult to pull off: level 1 characters who only have a maximum of 1 HP cannot die from damage, as the game cannot reduce their HP to any fraction of the total.
The easiest way to accomplish this in older versions was to play or recruit a human mage with 3 constitution (as other races have higher constitution minimums). Then buy and equip The Claw of Kazgaroth which reduces constitution by 2. Your level 1 mage will now have a maximum of 1 HP and will resist all damage.
In the Enhanced Editions, it is significantly easier to set this up: again play a human mage with 3 constitution, but then cast the Find Familiar spell and kill your own familiar. This will reduce your maximum constitution by 1. Rest and repeat this to get your maximum HP down to 1.
There is a bug with this mechanic: any attacks dealing the character's maximum HP exactly will kill them, which means with a maximum of 1 HP, the character can still die if an attack deals 1 HP.
===Invincible Level-Drained Shamans===
Favored of the Spirits gives Shamans (among other things) the rare "minimum hp" effect and sets it to 1, meaning they cannot have their hp reduced below 1 for as long as the effect lasts (50 rounds, in this case). However, the way this ability works is that, if the Shaman's hp gets to the 10% threshold or under it, the effect is removed and they get a full heal. Knowing this, one can exploit this ability by making it impossible to have less than 10% hp, via having 9 or under maximum hp (1hp is more than 10% of 9).
To achieve that with a level 19 Shaman (the earliest level that one can acquire Favored of the Spirits), one needs to be level-drained, due to the fact the game's engine has a limitation: you cannot have less maximum hp than your character level (so a level 19 Shaman cannot have less than 19 maximum hp). Therefore, we need to be level 9 (and, yes, high-level class abilities remain available to you, even when you're level-drained).
Beyond that, another way to help lower your maximum hp is to become a squirrel, via Polymorph Other or Wand of Polymorphing, because the squirrel form is supposed to set a character's maximum hp to 5, but due to the aforementioned engine limitation, we still need to be level-drained down to 9.
In summary, one way to perform this trick is to:
-Reach level 19 as a Shaman to acquire Favored of the Spirits.
-Get level-drained down to, at least, level 9 and get turned into a squirrel.
-Cast Favored of the Spirits to become, essentially, invincible for 50 rounds (though, technically, you can still die from stat-drain, like from a Mindflayer draining your intelligence down to 0).
Besides serving as a tank for 50 rounds, it's worth mentioning that this level-drained invincible shaman squirrel can still dance to produce an infinite amount of Major Animal Spirits, who (due to having 3 attacks per round) might still be able to hit some high level monsters by getting critical hits here and there. So if you're not planning on summoning anything else, it's better than nothing.
===Item Duplication===
You can duplicate items using a shop or a bag of holding. First, you need at least two (or possibly three) copies of the item you want to duplicate. Sell one copy to a shop, exit out of the shop, and then go back to the shop's menu. Purchase the item back, but instead of clicking "Done," click the inventory button on the left side of the screen, twice. You will then return to the game screen, at which point you can re-enter the shop.
If you do this repeatedly, you can create an unlimited number of copies of the item, as skipping the "Done" button prevents the shop from deleting its own supply. Thus, you can always buy another copy. Using a bag of holding works the same way, but costs nothing.
(This trick appears to be patched and no longer works in BG2EE v.2.6)
===Item Swapping for Disabled Characters===
In the IE games, you cannot access a disabled or charmed character's inventory, but EE allows you to add items to their inventory slots, but not remove them. However, you can force a disabled character to let go of an equipped item if you replace it. For example, if you need to land an Arrow of Dispelling to cure a feebleminded party member, but are wearing Boots of Avoidance and therefore have +5 to AC vs. missiles, you can place an extra pair of boots on the character's boot slot to remove them and make it easier to land the Arrow of Dispelling.
===Killing Powerful NPCs===
====Drizzt Do'Urden====
If Drizzt can be surrounded by NPC party members (it will take a full party of CHARNAME plus the 5 NPCs and can be a bit tricky to accomplish as he wanders hasted) and then Reform until all former members become neutral, his attack will be limited to close-range melee. In that situation, Drizzt can be killed with either a ranged or long-range melee weapon with total safety for the CHARNAME. Only natural 20 rolls will hit him and none of those will register as critical hits since Drizzt is immune to those. A sizable reputation loss will result from his death.
It is also possible to play tag with Drizzt around the lake, using the Boots of Speed to evade his strikes. Drizzt's pathfinding in Baldur's Gate is not that great and he can get stuck in the middle of the lake, with the player on the other side. For wizards, using Dimension Door to cross the lake is advised. The player can then pepper him with arrows or ranged spells with impunity until he dies.
If you move very carefully towards Drizzt, the Gnolls will start attacking him while Drizzt himself is still out of range. This way he does not start his script, does not defend himself and will eventually be killed by the Gnolls’ occasional natural 20 hits. (Not Working on Nintendo Switch)
====Ulraunt====
Ulraunt is very killable but has high physical resistance to weapons and a high magic resistance, like a human Kangaxx. Players will have to attack him for a long, long time (or get lucky with the Dagger of Venom) but he will eventually die by normal means.
====Gorion (Prologue) ====
He casts a number of Level 3 spells but autokills any enemy he targets with the spell once it is cast. Stay out of his line of sight and use spells like Cloudkill or Stinking Cloud to pacify him from a distance, then awaken him with offensive spells, arrows or melee. The best option possible is to bounce a lightning bolt off the stairs so it hits him multiple times.
====Tethtoril (Prologue) ====
Possesses Deity Kill, which is as unstoppable as Gorion's instant-kill command, but Diety Kill has a weakness: it is lower than Level 3, and is blocked by Minor Globe of Invulnerability. Use a globed Wizard to soak up Tethtoril's attention while attacking him with whatever other weapons (preferably the Dagger of Venom) are at hand.
====Shandalar====
Single most powerful NPC/boss in Tales of the Sword Coast, in terms of difficulty and experience given (24,000 experience). He casts a number of Level 5/6 spells with Improved Alacrity after casting Globe of Invulnerability on himself, eventually teleporting away when he's out of ammo. Attack him from a distance using area spells, Cloudkill, Stinking Cloud or wands, casting Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on him and punching him out with fists, finishing him off with melee or the Dagger of Venom. Can also be paralyzed with a wand, it might take a lot of reloads.
====Watchers (Prologue)====
Killing them gives immediate access to plate armor, so even for players of good alignment, killing one can be valuable as plate armor is difficult to find early in the game.
===Killing without Losing Reputation===
You can kill a character without losing reputation by using a cursed scroll of monster summoning on them. You can also charm them and make them kill themselves with offensive spells, though not all characters have such spells. This can let you avoid reputation loss when killing characters with valuable items such as Firebead Elvenhair, Ordulinian, Noralee, Dushai, and Shandalar's daughters.
A second way to kill a civilian without reputation loss is to land a killing hit using missile weapons by a companion who is temporarily booted from the party. When the arrow or throwing knife etc. is still in midair, reform the group by removing that companion. If the civilian is killed by that arrow or knife, no penalty will be incurred.
A third way to kill civilian or even plot-important npc without reputation loss or turning other npc hostile involves a cleric companion who is able to cast lv.1 sanctuary and lv. 6 blade barrier. Align your cleric companion close to your killing target, and move your player character next to your cleric. Cast sanctuary and then blade barrier. Dismiss your cleric immediately and the cleric will initiate dialogue with your PC. Order the cleric to stay in the current position. After that, you can relax and enjoy your target being struck down by the blade of a third party person. If your cleric has HLA globel of blades, it is even better which can stack with the blade barrier to improve the damage. The above way allows damaging most of the plot-important npc without triggering their instant kill scripts when turned hostile. For example, attacking Bodhi or Irenicus prematurely. Yet, it still cannot bypass the HPMIN=1 enchantment that often exits on these npc.
In case that your cleric companion doesn't allow the option to stay at the current position when you dismiss him/her, here is a workaround. Once you have your cleric standing next to the killing target, you need to entrap your cleric with three summons by surrounding him/her. Once you dismiss your cleric, he/she will be stuck at the current location while trying to reach your PC to initiate dialogue. The summons can be Simulacra of mage that can cast spell immunity evocation or a Simulacrum that has 3 scroll of magic protection. Such that you can use normal summons with magic protection to tank the blade barrier.
Note that some plot-important npc when killed will turn all allied npc hostile to your party even though your party is "legitimately" innocent or not involved with it. For example, Solaufein or Phaere in underdark for SoA, the ogre general from the Caelar faction during your infiltration to their camp for SoD.
===Learning spells from prohibited schools and adding spells from scrolls as a sorcerer===
A specialist mage dualed into a thief and a multiclass illusionist/thief gnome are able to equip scrolls from their prohibited schools into quick item slots and use them, but still cannot normally scribe them into their spellbook. Meanwhile, sorcerers have no prohibited schools, but cannot ordinarily learn spells from scrolls at all. However it's possible to do so in both cases, by: equipping a multi-mode item such as Wand of Fire or Book of Infinite Spells in a quick item slot, changing it to its secondary ability (e.g. Scorcher or "turn a page"), using it and immediately pausing (before it's actually used), switching the item for a scroll from a prohibited school (or any scroll, in the case of the sorcerer) and, finally, unpausing.
This causes the multi-mode item to use its second ability, which, in the case of scrolls, is the "scribe" ability that's normally only available via the item description menu.
=== Level 41 Characters ===
When a character's experience becomes negative, it underflows into a large positive value. A single or multi class character jumps to their max level, meanwhile, a dual class character with an active secondary class jumps beyond the level cap to level 41. So far, only three events are known to grant negative experience in BG2EE:
# Wagering a character's experience when playing Aesgarath in Watcher's Keep. If the character draws the lower card, they lose 50,000 experience. This can be repeated at most twice on any party member.
# Opening the last door on the "Good Path" in the Test of Selfishness causes the main character to lose 75,000 experience
# When Rangers and Paladin become Fallen, they lose experience. (This penalty does not appear to be implemented)
Characters start SoA with over 75,000 experience, making it difficult to reach any of these 3 events without gaining additional experience. The easiest way to lower a character's experience such that these events causes their experience to become negative is by dual classing. Before performing any of these events, a character should dual classes such that they become level 1 with 0 experience.
Without mods, at level 41, some aspects of the class behave unexpectedly:
* Priest and Mage spell tables are empty
* Backstab multipliers default to 0
* THAC0 default to 0 regardless of class
Other aspects such as HLAs, proficiency points, turn undead and theving skill points apply normally. Due to this, only a handful Dual Class combinations are useful:
* Fighter (Kensai or Wizard Slayer due to level-scaling passives) to Thief (for Use Any Item)
* Kitted Cleric/Mage/Druid to Fighter (for proficiencies and HLAs) or Thief (for Use Any Item)
* Kitted Cleric to Ranger (yields more HLAs than to Fighter since the Ranger is normally capped at level 31 but instead will reach level 41)
* Kitted Thief (in particular the Swashbuckler due to level-scaling passives) to Fighter (for proficiencies and HLAs) or Cleric (for turn undead. See Limited Wish Vampires)
Level 41 characters do not appear to regain spell slots, backstab multipliers or THAC0 if afflicted by Level-Drain.
===Lightning Bolt Loop===
A Lightning Bolt spell can bounce off of both the Cloak of Reflection and the original version of the Cloak of Mirroring. By deleting the Cloak of Mirroring's file in the override folder and restoring the original version, which reflects rather than blocks spell damage (may not be possible in EE), or by using the Import/Export Trick to duplicate the Cloak of Reflection you can bounce a Lightning Bolt spell or Wand of Lightning charges between two party members indefinitely. You can even dedicate multiple charges and add extra lightning bolts to the loop, making it stronger.
Testing has found that the loop can be canceled accidentally due to positioning problems. Testing has also suggested that it is possible to make it impossible for the loop to ever be re-created in a single save game.
It's also possible to bounce a Lightning Bolt spell or wand in a reliable path by pointing it directly north or south in close quarters, as lightning bolts bounce directly backwards if cast north or south. This can be used to reliably hit a single target about 5 times in a narrow hallway. But the EE version of the lightning bolt projectile may behave differently.
===Limited Wish-resting===
Wild Mages can use Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to cast Limited Wish. Limited Wish allows a caster with high Wisdom to restore spell slots: 1 spell for each level from 1 to 4. If the Wild Mage has no empty level 4 spell slots, it will restore a level 3 spell slot instead. With no empty spell slots, a single Limited Wish, generated from a single Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, can restore 4 level 1 spells slots, allowing a Wild Mage to cast spells indefinitely, provided it does not suffer a wild surge that breaks the loop.
A wild mage dual cleric can restore upwards of 8 mage and cleric spells (4 mage spells and 4 cleric spells) for levels 1 to 4.
===Limited Wish Dispel===
Limited Wish can be used to remove buff, debuffs and summons during combat by selecting "I wish to be protected from undead right now." on a character with 9 or less wisdom to move time forward until it is midnight. Depending on the time of day, you may need 2 Limited Wishes to fully dispel all effects. Say the time is 5 minutes to midnight. The first Limited Wish would move time forward by 5 minutes, enough to remove some summons but not all such as Animate Dead. The 2nd Limited Wish would then move time by almost 24 hours.
The wand of lightning trick can be used with Limited Wish to multiply the effect by up to 6 times.
The dispel of this trick is global and powerful with the caveat that you need to defeat a group of vampires.
=== Limited Wish Vampires ===
Limited Wish can be used to summon vampires during combat by selecting "I wish to be protected from undead right now." on a character with 9 or less wisdom (also see Limited Wish Dispel).
Good or neutral-aligned Clerics with sufficiently high level turn undead are able to slay the vampires, granting a high, repeatable source of experience.
Evil-aligned Clerics with sufficiently high level turn undead are able to gain control of vampires rather than slay them outright, giving you a deadly pack of vampires to command.
===Lingering Song Trick===
In Icewind Dale 2, the Lingering Song trick lets a bard's song continue for 2 rounds after being activated. This allows you to repeatedly click the bard song icon and stack the effects of any song while the game is still paused. The effects scale infinitely, except for the damage bonus from the Ballad of Three Heroes, which is capped at +20.
===Maze: The Ultimate Protection===
Several events in the game apply effects that are normally considered unavoidable, as they have power level 0 (explicitly targeted by nothing in game) and are considered nonmagical (so protections against magic attacks and magic resistance don't work), such as the CON loss resulting from a Familiar's death or the DEX/CON/INT/WIS loss from the dream sequence with the Demon in Spellhold. However, the spell Maze has the unique property of, essentially, "temporarily removing characters from the game", only to bring them back later and, as a result, most effects that happen in an instant can be avoided by simply "not being there" during said instant, via Maze,
For example, while Mazed, your Familiar can die and you won't suffer a CON loss, not even when you return. And, if you time it right (this one is not so easy to do), you can vanish into the maze after the end of the conversation with the Spellhold Demon, but before the actual stat loss happens, so that it won't affect you; and then you simply have to wait for your character to return from the Maze. This last trick can be done much more easily if you have a Familiar, cause the Familiar can start a conversation with the Demon while you're Mazed.
The unfortunate limitation of this exploit is the fact that you get a game over if you're Maze'd as a solo character, so you need at least one (living, not-charmed, not-Maze'd etc.) party member to perform this.
===Maze Trapping===
While not an exploit, a Bounty Hunter can Maze an entire group of enemies using a level 21 Special Snare. This allows the Bounty Hunter to set additional traps while the enemies are gone. When the enemies return--usually one at a time--they will immediately trigger any traps the Bounty Hunter has lain since the first Maze trap. This can be done as long as the Bounty Hunter still has Maze traps.
===Meta Trapping===
Several tough enemies only appear after you take some explicit action (e.g., opening a Lich's sarcophagus, chatting with the Demogorgon, severing one of Amelyssan's power sources). By preparing the area with spike traps, you can kill these enemies the moment they appear. To avoid running out of traps in the Amelysaan battle, have a clone lay the traps for you.
You can also use this approach on enemies that start out neutral until some explicit action is taken (such as Jon Irenicus or the shadow dragon Thaxll'ssillyia).
===Mislead Backstabs===
Any character under the effects of Mislead is considered constantly invisible for the purposes of backstabbing. Thus, a Misled character can backstab multiple times in a single round, so long as the target does not turn around.
Also, if you send the Mislead clone to a safe place (Maze does not count), enemies will not be able to kill it, and so your Misled character will remain completely undetectable, except to enemies who naturally see through invisibility like liches, demons, and dragons, for the duration of the spell.
===Mix and match spells of different alignments with divine casters===
A divine caster (Cleric, Paladin, Blackguard etc.), that permanently changes their alignment via the Helmet of Opposite Alignment exploit before they acquire new spells will acquire those of the alignment they've changed into. So, for example, if one manages to acquire the helmet and reproduce the exploit with a Blackguard they will be able to learn Holy Smite whenever they reach level 3 spells.
If you keep changing your alignment back and forth it's even possible to mix and match spells to have, say, level 1 spells from good alignment, level 2 spells from evil alignment, level 3 spells from good alignment and so on. This is especially useful for players using the Sword Coast Stratagems mod that introduces Icewind Dale spells into BGEE and BG2EE, many of which are alignment-restricted. Although players in unmodded games might want to at least give their evil clerics access to Holy Smite, for example.
Finally, this trick is, unfortunately, not applicable for Druids as they are unaffected by the Helmet of Opposite Alignment (because they're True Neutral).
=== Multiplayer Exploits ===
Multiplayer exploits are a class of bugs that require two or more players in a game to perform. With at least two players, certain actions are possible that are not otherwise with a single player.
You do not need multiple computers or people to perform these exploits since more than one instances of the game can be launched on the same computer by one person. Each game instance can join the same game over Beamdog hosted-servers or Local Area Network.
==== Infinite Proficiency Points ====
It is possible to gain infinite proficiency points and give any class grandmastery in Long Swords using a method similar to the Black Blade of Disaster Dual Class Trick. To perform this, on a character capable of leveling up and allocating at least one point on Long Sword, give control of that character to Player 2 and have them enter the Level Up screen and allocate a single point on Long Sword. On Player 1, using a character capable of Wild Surge and casting Black Blade of Disaster, have them apply Black Blade of Disaster with Wild Surges #6, #48 or #90 on the character in the Level Up screen controlled by Player 2. They should now be able to remove 5 points from Long Sword and re-allocate them as they choose (or simply leave 5 points in Long Sword to obtain Grandmastery). Wait for the duration of Black Blade of Disaster to expire before repeating (resting to cause Black Blade of Disaster to expire does not appear, you must simply wait).
==== Re-allocate Thieving Points ====
It is possible to re-allocate thieving points using a method similar to above. Instead of Black Blade of Disaster, cast spells that augment thieving skills such as Luck, Draw Upon Holy Might (increases Dexterity), etc. While Player 2 is in the Level Up screen, they should be able to remove more thieving points than normally possible and re-allocate them. This does not give you additional thieving points nor let you re-allocate more than points than you currently have.
==== Infinite Magical Weapon Duration ====
By de-synchronizing the duration of magical weapons, effects such APR, Haste, Improved Haste, visual appearance, resistances, regeneration, etc. can be extended indefinitely. You can even stack these effects from different magical weapons to gain obscene bonuses such as 10 APR, both Haste and Improved Haste, 16hp/sec regeneration and 24 strength. They appear to persist through dispel, Ctr-R and resting however, they do not persist on save or reload (the effect states are not recognized on save). Some magical weapons with notable effects are:
* Wild Surge #13 Polymorphed: Wolf, sets APR to 3 and grants haste in Human form
* Seeking Sword, sets APR to 3
* Energy Blade, sets APR to 9 and grants Improved Haste
* Melf's Minute Meteor, sets APR to 5
* Shapechange: Greater Wolfwere, grants regeneration of 8hp/sec without Haste, 16hp/sec with Haste/Improved Haste
* Shapechange: Iron Golem, grants 24 strength and resistances
* Black Blade of Disaster, sets 5 points in Long Sword
To perform this de-synchronization, give control of a character to Player 2. Reform the party and remove that character from the party. Either prevent them from starting a dialogue to rejoin or tell them to remain in position. Apply one or more of the above effects to that character. Before returning the character to the party, remove their magical weapon either by advancing the time by resting or dispelling magical weapon (e.g. Melf's Minute Meteor). Certain effects on that character should now last indefinitely. (For Polymorph Self and Shapechange, the spell needs to be cast by Player 2 and not by a Wild Surge by Player 1, hence you will need to Charm Player 2 in order to change forms.) 
==== Regaining Character Control while in the Level Up Screen ====
Typically, a player cannot give actions nor access screens such as inventory, spells, etc. while in the Level Up screen. Also, that character appears to be immune to damage, effects and ignore dialogue while the Level Up screen is shown. It is possible to regain control and access to the inventory, spells, potions and other screens by causing the HUD to popup on top the Level Up screen. While Player 2 is on the Level Up screen, have Player 1 perform one of these actions:
* Resting
* Clicking Reform Party
* Clicking Character Arbitration then Change Player on any character
Player 2's HUD should now popup on top the Level Up screen (although the Level Up screen will still be active beneath) and will be able to access other screen by clicking the inventory buttons on the left-side of the screen (hotkeys do not appear to work).
==== Forcing the Level Up / Dual Class Screen to Close ====
Typically, a player cannot close the Level Up or Dual Class screens until the process is finished. However, there are some actions that force the screen to close. To do this, have Player 2 enter the Level Up or Dual Class screens. Have Player 1 click Character Arbitration then change control of the character Player 2 is modifying to Player 1 and click Done.
===Nazramu Gold Exploit===
If you have 20 reputation and 20 Charisma, you can repeatedly sell items to Nazramu and buy them back at a net profit because his buy and sell markups are so close together. Fully-charged Wands of Monster Summoning have the highest value and are therefore the fastest way to gain gold using this trick.
This is also possible with the Temple of Sekolah in BG2, unless an update closed the exploit.
===Nishruu Infinite Charges===
Be attacked by a Nishruu while possessing a weapon with a finite number of used charges, and the Nishruu warps the item to have near-infinite charges and allowing those weapons to be sold for millions of Gold. Especially useful with items like the Staff of Power, which are not once-per-day (which wipes the excess charges). This bug is fixed in the Enhanced Edition.
===Obtain pickpocketable items with any class (except Wizard Slayers)===
Normally, one requires a Bard, a Thief or a Mage with a Cat or Ferret familiar to be able to pickpocket items, however, charmed thieves can be used to perform that function with other classes.
For example, to obtain Ribald's Ring of Regeneration with any class (except Wizard Slayers), you can turn Brennan Risling (the thief from Mencar Pebblecrusher's party at the Den of Seven Vales) hostile, let him follow you all the way into the Adventurer's Mart, charm him (for example, with the Ring of Human Influence) and then pickpocket Ribald. After Brennan has obtained the ring, you need only kill him (something you can do without penalty) to be able to loot the dropped ring.
===Pacify hostile characters permanently===
First of all, allegiances in the infinity engine games are very complex, but one can summarize them into two categories: hostile (to the player party) and non-hostile. Second, with few exceptions (like the charm effects from the Nymph Cloak and the Ring of Human Influence), every charm effect in the game switches allegiances once it runs out (or when it's dispelled), to make it so the previously charmed character turns against the charmer's faction.
We can use this knowledge to our advantage by forcing a hostile creature to use one of the "switch allegiance charms" (again, the most common kind of charm) on another hostile creature (or themselves), making it so said creature turns non-hostile once the charm effect wears out (or is dispelled) and can even be talked to, if they have dialogue attached to them. There are several ways to achieve this, but two of them are:
a) Use (Minor) Spell Turning to make it so a hostile character charms themselves (they have to fail the save) or force them to roll wild surges (with The Brick or the Tunic of Blindeye) to possibly get their targets switched, so they end up charming another hostile character (or themselves). Once the charm effect is gone, the charmed character should turn non-hostile.
b) Charm a spellcaster (or any creature who can charm enemies) and wait for the charm effect to almost run out. Then, order your charmed spellcaster to cast a charm on an enemy, so that the charm on the spellcaster runs out during the spellcasting animation. If done correctly, the new charmed enemy will have been charmed by a "hostile faction" character, meaning that when the effect runs out, it'll turn non-hostile aka opposed to the "hostile faction".
c) First, acquire a Thrall Collar from the Planar Prison. Then, cast a charm spell on an enemy and, while the casting animation is happening, equip the Thrall Collar, so that your party member turns hostile. Once again, when the charm wears off (or is dispelled), the enemy will switch allegiances to become non-hostile. Be sure to keep a Remove Curse spell ready to remove the Thrall Collar from your party member.
===Party-wide self-cast spells===
If you have:
a) A wild mage in your party;
b) Access to a wild magic area (eg maze level of Watcher's Keep or Neera's Wild Forest); or
c) An item that allows wild surges to happen (like The Brick).
It is possible to use Wild Surges #6, #48 and #90 to cast powerful and/or long-lasting self-cast spells like Stoneskin, Black Blade of Disaster and Time Stop on your party members. This is only useful for spells with long durations, major buffs and such, because, due to the nature of wild surging, you need to abuse quick saving/reloading to get one of those three wild surges to happen when you want (so you probably only want to do this before major battles).
The effects of area-wide Stoneskin and Black Blade of Disaster should be fairly easy to understand (your party gets the skins and your party gets BBDs), but Time Stop works a little bit differently. What happens if you get surge #6 or #90 is that each of your party members gets a Time Stop in a row. So, first, your caster gets Time Stop, then the party member closest to them, then the next one and so on. If you do this, you should have enemies just outside the fog of war so that you can rush in and hit them (don't be too close to the enemy when you cast, even if they're blue circle, otherwise they'll get a Time Stop as well!), plus, you might wanna give your caster the Staff of the Magi so they can dispel the enemy during Time Stop before your other party members get their own Time Stop rounds.
=== Playing a companion as the Child of Bhaal ===
Wild Surge #65 can cause monsters to cast spells that are unintended. For example, Tanar'ri in the demon plane (Planar Sphere quest) can cause a Wild Surge #65 that turns the main character into a bat, vampiric mist or Kangaxx. (See Wild Surge: Oops, Wrong Spell for more details.) This permanently removes the main character but does not trigger the game to end as long as you have at least one other companion. This allows the game to continue without a main character.
Without a main character, certain scripts do not run. This may halt further progression; however, there's a workaround. A companion (such as Jaheira, Minsc, Edwin, etc) can fill the main character position by joining the party (leaving first if they are already in the party). The next companion that joins the party automatically takes the vacant position of the main character. Dialogue that use the main character name still use the original main character name.
Alternatively, another way to fill the main character position is to reorder the character portraits so that the companion you want as the main character is at the top. Save, then load that game. That companion now becomes the main character. Unlike the first method, dialogue in this method correctly uses the companions name.
If Hexxat is the main character, when Hexxat takes lethal damage and becomes a vampiric mist, she remains invulnerable. The game will however end if she stands next to another companion which causes her to enter Dragomir's Repite.
If Wilson is the main character, their inability to have conversations makes progression difficult.
If a companion leaves, due to a quest or trigger, the main character position becomes vacant again, allowing another companion to take the position of the main character.
===Permanent clones and summons===
Any clone/summon can be made to remain indefinitely in the world by being revived after dying. To achieve that, all you need to do is target them (so Mass Raise Dead doesn't work) with the Rod of Resurrection or a Resurrection spell (preferably the latter, as it has a long casting time) and kill the clone/summon before the resurrection effect takes place.
This will cause the clone/summon to be revived as a neutral character, which can then be charmed (preferably via the Nymph Cloak/Algernon's Cloak whose charm effects last 9 and 12 hours) to be of use to the party. The Nymph Cloak/Algernon's Cloak's charm effects are also preferable to most other kinds of charms as they won't turn the clone/summon hostile after it runs out.
The limitations of this exploit are that: a) not every character can be charmed (if you clone an elf, be sure to use a Cleric's Mental Domination that bypasses elven resistance to charm) and b) revived clones still won't drop cloned items, as they're all marked as undroppable/unstealable, so there's no item duplication possible.
===Permanent party-wide Polymorph Self/Shapechange===
If you have:
a) A wild mage in your party;
b) Access to a wild magic area (eg maze level of Watcher's Keep or Neera's Wild Forest); or
c) An item that allows wild surges to happen (like The Brick).
It is possible to use Wild Surges #6, #48 and #90 to alter the target of the spell so that a party member gets the Polymorph Self/Shapechange abilities instead of the caster; however, due to how the spell is coded, if your one or more of your party members is in another form when the duration of the spell expires they'll remain in said form permanently, unable to change forms again or to return to their normal forms, unless:
a) They receive the benefits of a Polymorph Self/Shapechange spell again, so they get access to the "Shapeshift: natural form" ability;
b) Use their own shapeshifting capabilities, if they're a druid;
c) Use an item that allows one to shapeshift, like Relair's Mistake (wolf cloak) in BG1 and the Cloak of the Sewers in BG2.
===Pickpocket Equipped Weapons===
Enemy/npc weapons aren't generally flagged as unstealable in the game simply due to the fact that a thief already can't steal them while the NPC has the weapon equipped (not merely placed in the weapon slots, actually equipped). With that said, if you manage to change an enemy/npc's equipped weapon (say, via the use of polymorph other or a wand of polymorph, which changes their equipped weapon to the squirrel's natural attack), your thief will be able to pickpocket the item (if you use the polymorph method you can either feeblemind them beforehand so they won't aggro or you can charm them afterwards so you can pickpocket them again).
Alternatively, if the enemy/npc has a) a regular class (mage, fighter etc.) and b) any droppable weapon in its weapon slots (eg not a dragon's claw attack), then you can simply charm them to change their equipped weapon. If those conditions aren't met, then the quick weapon selection bar won't show up when you charm them, even if they have multiple undroppable weapons (eg summoned winter wolves have a paw attack and their wintery breath, but you can't select between them).
===Potion of Power Trick===
If you drink multiple potions of power, the HP bonus, if not the THAC0 bonus, will stack indefinitely, warriors can get hundreds of HP this way, allowing them to survive the 1500 damage from Slayer Form via auto-save timer reset. The bonuses can be dispelled though, and Potions of Power are rare. This should be cumulative with the Wand of Lightning trick.
===Potions are fast===
In BG2 drinking action is speed 0 or 1, almost instantaneously. If drinking Potion of Explosions or Oil of fiery burning, that's a bunch of fireballs center on drinker. Couple that with protection from fire for self protection.
Or instead of that stack of potion you can replace with a wand of fire instead. It can be recharged easier than you can find those potions.
If you use potion of (extra) healing, you can drink a bunch of potions at once and get healed. A good way to deal with those numerous potions.
If you use to turn pages in the Book of Daily Spell, you'll get 6 copies of the next page, allowing you to duplicate the book (unless you hit the Burning Hands page on the first try).
It's also possible to use the Wand of Lightning trick to target things from all the way across the map by dedicating one of the six targets to a container or item on the ground.
===Quick Save Trick===
Loading the game resets the aura and stealth timer of all party members. By quick-saving and then quick-loading, you can cast multiple spells or drink multiple potions within the same round, provided that you are not in combat. This can extend the lifespan of short-duration effects, or allow an Archer to stack Called Shot effects right before combat begins.
===Random Treasure Re-roll===
Random treasure is generated upon entering an area. By saving and reloading in an area leading to another area with random treasure, you can re-roll the treasure until you find a particular item, potion, scroll, etc. This is useful if you're looking for a specific spell. Note that not all scrolls can be found this way (see Random treasure).
An example of this trick is: save the game before activating the portal in Irenicus' Lair, travel through the portal then check bookshelf in the mephit portal room. This bookshelf contains "Rich" treasure, which has a chance of rolling a random level 3 scroll (e.g., Spell Trap, Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Spell Sequencer, etc.)
===Reforming Party/Removing Members Exploits (Multiple)===
==== Innate Abilities ====
By removing and adding a party member, it will refresh their innate abilities (but not spells). This includes innate abilities such as:
* Barbarian Rage
* Defensive Spin
* Set Snare 
This exploit is particularly broken on Legacy of Bhaal difficulty with Summon Spirit Animal ability for Totemic Druids. 
In the original BG2, a character with the Dual Class option can replenish their class special abilities by entering the Dual Class window and closing it. 
==== Fatigue ====
Removing and adding a party member resets their fatigue level.
==== Karma ====
If a party member other than the main character kills an innocent, removing them immediately after the killing blow is dealt will avoid incurring the reputation penalty.
==== Targeting by enemies/spells ====
You can temporarily kick characters out of the party to get enemies to ignore them at critical times. Certain spells like Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, Slow, Greater Malison, and Dragon's Breath will have no effect on neutral critters, so if you kick out a party member before such a spell is about to hit, the spell will fail completely. Enemies will also avoid attacking neutral critters, which means you can get party members out of dangerous situations merely by booting them from the party. The enemy will ignore them until they rejoin the party. If you turn the main character invisible and remove everyone else from the party, you can walk the whole group right past any number of enemies in complete safety while only using a single invisibility spell or potion or Protection from Undead scroll.
Single-target and non-party-friendly spells will still hit, however, as will arrows in midair. This means that the Reform Party trick can't rescue party members from all dangers. A character who dies while outside the party cannot be resurrected, so it's not wise to use this trick when a character is close to death.
Unlike other escape options, the Reform Party trick can be done at any time, regardless of aura, even when the whole party is disabled, or even during an enemy mage's Time Stop spell.
===Remove Curse Trick===
Remove Curse can be cast on enemies with cursed items, who will immediately drop the item. This can be used to weaken characters such as Kontik, Brage, and Smaeluv Orcslicer.
===Revive monsters or Yoshimo after his "permanent" death===
Pretty simple trick: you can target "untargetable" characters (such as anybody who dies and is not a member of the player's party) to revive them by using the Rod of Resurrection (or any other resurrection method, I assume) on the character right before they actually die. What happens is that they will still be targeted after death and will revive, so you can do this when Yoshimo has a "heart attack" when you find him at the Copper Coronet in Chapter 6 (I've only tested this with a Yoshimo that had never been in my party before, it probably doesn't work if you take him with you to Spellhold).
You can also revive monsters by targeting them while alive and killing them before the revive spell is cast. Using this exploit, you can farm Firkraag for experience.
===Saving Imoen from Irenicus' Lair===
An old speed run bug allowed the player to skip Irenicus' dialogue when escaping his lair to Waukeen's Promenade. This same bug occasionally also allowed Imoen to remain in the party.
The bug requires that Imeon be removed from the party next to the Dwarven forge as the rest of the party leave to the surface. (See this for a video demonstration.)
If Imoen reaches 1HP she will leave the party similar to her scripted behavior in Irenicus' Lair.
Imoen will be wearing her belt which grants her immunity to many effects, including polymorph. This means when she changes forms she remains as human but takes on the weapons from the form change, e.g. she remains a human but has the attack of an Iron Golem when she uses Shapechange: Iron Golem. (See Immune to Polymorph Grants Polymorph Weapon while Staying as Human Form.)
Rescueing Imoen later in the main storyline allows the party to have 2 Imoens in the party.
===Self-centered Spells Trick===
Spells cast on self-ignore magic resistance. Thus, a False Dawn spell, which is cast on self by default, will bypass magic resistance on nearby targets, allowing you to deal fire damage to skeletons warriors and other magic-immune critters.
No longer works for Sunfire in EE.
===Shadowdancer Trick===
You can maintain invisibility indefinitely as a Shadowdancer by manipulating the stealth timer. Click Hide, then click Detect Traps (or any other button) immediately. This will not break invisibility until after 2 rounds. After 6 seconds (3 seconds if hasted), you will be able to hide again. Use this to go invisible, wait until the Hide icon is enabled, backstab, and then go invisible again without ever exposing yourself to attack.
===Shadow Twin Army===
A Shadow Twin is able to create another single Shadow Twin provided it still has at least one use of the ability.
Normally, a Shadow Twin incurs a 60% level penalty, but when a Simulacrum or Project Image uses Shadow Twin the resulting clone does not incur this penalty. To further, all generations of Shadow Twins created by Shadow Twins do not incur this penalty!
Due to second and later generation Shadow Twins not inheriting the items of their caster, to take advantage of a Shadow Twin army, the character needs to dual class to Mage or Cleric to access spells.
A Shadow Twin dual mage can cast Project Image followed by a number of Shadow Twin equal to their uses of the ability per day. Each of these Shadow Twins have the same spells as the Project Image, including any level 9 or HLA spells such as Improved Alacrity and Time Stop, granting a vast arsenal of high-level spells as well as multiple casters.
===Shamanic Spirits Remain and Follow a Moving Shaman (requires 2 Shamans)===
There are two conditions for spirits from Shamanic Dance to not disappear: a) a Shaman must be dancing and b) a Shaman must be within sight of the spirits. However, those two conditions need not be met by the same Shaman, producing an exploit that lets one of the Shamans roam around a map with spirits following them, while another Shaman dances (alone) somewhere else, just to keep them from disappearing.
So, these are the steps necessary to produce this exploit:
-Move one of the Shamans away (let's call them "Isolated Shaman"), so the spirits that will be summoned by the other Shaman (let's call them "Moving Shaman") can't see them. You can leave them inside a closed room or a bit far away, for example.
-Have the Moving Shaman start dancing, so they get the maximum number of spirits (if you want, you can kill weaker spirits with other party members, so they're replaced by better ones).
-Start dancing with the Isolated Shaman (no spirits will come out, as you're already at the party limit).
-Done. The Moving Shaman is now able to move around, and the spirits will follow them! But keep in mind that: a) If the spirits lose sight of the Moving Shaman (or any other Shaman, if you have more) they'll disappear, so watch out for corners and b) If no enemies are around and the spirits spot the dancing Isolated Shaman, they'll flock to them (if no enemies are around, spirits seem to be programmed to move towards the closest dancing Shaman).
Of course, the biggest limitation of this exploit is that your Moving Shaman won't be dancing to produce more spirits if the enemies kill them; however, the Isolated Shaman will be doing that. This means that you can quickly switch their roles by having the previous Moving Shaman start dancing, so that the previous Isolated Shaman can now move around with the spirits they summoned.
===Slayer Change Trick for EE===
Gorion's Ward may remain in Slayer form indefinitely (well, close to it, as area transitions and cutscenes revert you to your natural form) by surviving the 7 rounds of self-damage you experience after remaining in the form for a while. To put it simply: the damage is of the "magic damage" kind, so a mere Protection from Magic Energy cast (which need only remain in effect until the waves of self-damage are over) is enough to survive it and any solo non-Wizard Slayer character can access that in Throne of Bhaal via the Cloak of the Dark Moon, but there are several other ways to achieve 100% magic damage resistance (a combination of items that increase it with Armor of Faith, for example).
Another easy way to do this is with a Shaman, as their Favored of the Spirits high-level ability allows them to survive the otherwise fatal self-damage.
Finally, a more convoluted way to achieve this is by combining several item-related exploits. The Potion of Power trick with the Quick-Save trick and the Item Duplication trick (and perhaps also the Wand of Lightning trick to speed things up), you can boost your HP above 1500 in the ~7 rounds in between the beginning of Slayer Change and the 1500 magic damage that instantly kills you at the end. You have to have 20 or more Potions of Power (or even more, if you're not using the Wand of Lightning trick), probably via item duplication, and you need to be near an area transition.
Begin Slayer Change, enter the new area to force the game to auto-save, then load the auto-save. Drink a Potion of Power, force another auto-save by entering the next area, and load up the auto-save again to allow an action to be taken without delay, allowing you to drink another Potion of Power. If you drink enough potions before the end of Slayer Change, you'll survive the 1500 damage. You will therefore be able to sustain the Slayer form indefinitely.
===Spell Trap Trick===
While not strictly an exploit, Spell Trap can be used to restore an infinite number of spells by using level 9 effects against the caster. A Project Image clone can cast level 7 and level 9 spells to restore the original caster's spells. For a Simulacrum clone to be able to do the same thing, it would have to be level 18, which means only a level 35 mage (impossible without removing the experience cap) could do the same using Simulacrum instead of Project Image. To do this trick, have the clone strike a caster protected by Spell Trap using Black Blade of Disaster, each hit absorbed restores one level 9 spell. The same works with Melf's Minute Meteor for level 3 spells.
===Spell Trigger Trick===
You can prevent offensive Spell Triggers from breaking invisibility simply by choosing the caster as the target. Since the game considers spell triggers to be single-target spells, they don't break invisibility when cast on self. This allows you to launch three Death Fog spells, say, without ever becoming visible.
===Stealth with Advantage===
In BG2EE, the Advanced AI and Thief AIs count stealth cooldown using a script timer, not the stealth icon state. This exploit allows the character to immediately re-roll stealth if you fail to manually enter stealth. To do this, your thief must enable the Advanced AI or Thief AI which prioritize being in stealth. While the stealth icon is disabled, give the thief an action such as a walk command to prevent the AI from entering stealth immediately once stealth is ready. Manually enter stealth. If this manual attempt fails, the AI will immediate stealth again, hence granting advantage (the best outcome of two rolls) on stealth.
In combination with Haste, or Oil of Speed, which halves stealth timers, and the Shadowdancer Trick, a character can remain in stealth more often and more consistently.
===Summoned Demon Behavior===
Summoned demons ignore the summoning limit. Normally, summoning multiple demons will cause them to turn against each other, but casting Protection from Evil 10' Radius will get them to ignore each other and concentrate on your enemies instead (though they won't grant experience if killed).
===Talk-blocking===
Clicking on a neutral character will cause the character to turn to you and wait for you to speak with it. It will not take any other action for several seconds even if you order your character to do something else, so you can click on neutral characters to prevent them from talking to you, or even prevent them from defending themselves when you attack them.
===Teleport through Walls/Locked Doors using Wild Magic===
Using a wild mage (or any items/areas that can prompt wild surges, though it's easier to do with a Wild Mage because they can incite surges via Nahal's Reckless Dweomer), it is possible to cast a version of the level 4 spell Teleport Field that affects your own party (for example, Wild Surge #21 works for this purpose).
If cast near a wall/door, it is possible for the spell to teleport you through said wall/door, because even though the spell only applies to creatures located inside the "squiggly lines" visual effect, it can actually then send you much further away than that area.
This might not work if the wall you're trying to bypass is too thick, though. Teleport Field can only send you a little bit further away from the "squiggly area".
===Tears of Bhaal tests===
==== Test of Fear ====
Exploit #1: In the original Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn it possible to take the Good path AND the Cloak. Ask the devil for time to think then get the Tear, use it on the five-eyed door, then come back and ask the Cloak from the devil.
Exploit #2: In BG2EE it is possible to get evil rewards without becoming fallen paladin/ranger. Bring only 1 party member to the room of test of fear (you can leave the rest outside near the eye gate and pick them up later). Ask the devil to wait for your decision. Have boots of cheetah on both you and your other party member. Make sure both have improved haste and speed oils up. Place one party member very close to the devil and the other one very close to the place where you get the tear (be careful not to get feared). Carefully take the tear with one character and immediately talk to the devil with the other character saying that you want the cloak. Once you have the cloak and the tear, both characters should exit the zone before devil disappears. The reason this exploit works is that your character does not immediately fall from grace when you accept the cloak. Instead, you have a small window of a few seconds to exit the area before your class changes. Once you are outside of the room you have both tear and cloak and you get to keep your class. Make sure not to go back to the room or it will change your class. Note: once you turn the tear in to the gate your alignment will change to evil, but your class will stay the same and you won't become a fallen version of your class. This allows for lawful evil paladins and rangers. 
==== Test of Selfishness ====
Exploit #1: Haste a party member (might also need Spell Trigger: Dispel), and let them open the doors from the inside. This at least prevents the loss of DEX (but not the -2 hp), or the death of the character as punishment. (EE fixes this exploit) 
Exploit #2: before opening the good doors cast Spell Immunity: Divination. You won't lose anything. (EE fixes this little gap) 
Exploit #3: right when the conversation ends with the fiend pause and talk to it again before it teleports to the other side. Now you don't have to open the doors. If you want to go in for the healing potions, use the evil doors, as there won't be anyone to die. You get the good reward for this.
Exploit #4: Gorion's Ward can kick all party members from the group. The devil will now summon an innocent peasant for the Bhaalspawn to sacrifice. After receiving the tear, companions can be invited back in the group.
Exploit #5 (works in EE): In order to get the good outcome without any penalties, try using a Maze spell on your main character and then quickly opening all three doors on the left with any other character. If you are fast enough, it is then possible to pickpocket the tear from the demon before he teleports away (try initiating dialogue with him as you open the third door, which will keep him frozen in place while you run over and steal it).
Exploit #6 (works in v2.6 EE): To successfully finish the good path without any penalties you will need 2 Maze spells and a Freedom spell (needed for convenience, to end the Maze spell shortly). First, cast Maze on the party member that will be kidnapped. Second, initiate the dialogue with the demon and let it teleport with the victim. Third, cast Freedom spell - this will let your kidnapped party member reappear early without being "held". Fourth, cast Maze spell on the main character. Fifth, open all doors on the left from the inside with the kidnapped character and rejoin the party. Rest to end the Maze spell on the main character and talk with the demon to get the Tear of Bhaal.
Exploit #7: The last door on the good path reduces experience by 75,000. A character with less than that amount underflows, leading them to reach level 41 regardless of class. See the section on Level 41 Characters for more details.
==== Test of Greed ====
Exploit #1: In vanilla BG2 it is possible to pickpocket the good Tear from the genie thereby getting both the good reward and Blackrazor. This is not possible in BG2:EE. It is however possible to give Genie the sword (Good path) then kill him before he teleports away and get the sword this way.
===Teleportation Movement Speed===
Wild Surges #20 and #81 reduce movement speed by 4. A character affected by one or more such surge with less than 4 movement speed will move instantaneously as if they were teleporting. (The character's destination must still be accessible, i.e. this does not make closed doors passable.)
There are multiple ways to lower a character's movement speed such as Entangle, Grease, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere (see Invincible Barbarians and Undead Hunters) and Wild Surges #11 and #69. Causing a character to be over encumbered does not appear to work.
According to the game data, T'Rachie's Plate has an unlisted 1 movement speed penalty, which could be a substitute for Wild Surge #20 or #81, however the engine does not seem to treat the effect from T'Rachie's Plate the same as the Wild Surges.
===The Perfect Murder===
By using the Ring of Human Influence, it's possible to use a charmed npc to kill another without turning anyone hostile (except in the rare instances where they're programmed to turn hostile whenever someone dies no matter what reason, you can check by using the CTRL+Y instant kill cheat - if people turn hostile, then they're programmed like that).
The Ring of Human Influence has one of the few non-hostile charm effects in the game - meaning that when it runs out, the npc will remain friendly - and, unlike the Nymph Cloak its duration isn't hours long, which is important for the trick.
To do it, simply charm someone with the ring, wait 99 seconds (the effect lasts 100 seconds) and then order the npc to attack another far away from them. If you do it correctly, the charm will run out before the npc reaches their target, but they'll still carry out the attack order. The target shouldn't turn hostile either and might even just take the damage - depending on their script - until they die.
===Using potions without interrupting the effects of Shamanic Dance===
Shamans are notoriously vulnerable while dancing (they can't ordinarilly move without ending the dance and suffer a +4 penalty to AC) and the games also make it hard for the Shaman to do some things immediately after ending the dance, due to the fact spellcasting and quick item buttons are disabled for a while.
With that said, the player is still able to order their character to use potions via the inventory screen and the Shamanic Dance's effects will continue (ie the spirits won't disappear) as long as the player is dancing at the end of a round/start of the next round (and isn't moving). All of this makes it possible for a player to keep the Shamanic Dance effects going and still be able to drink potions by following these steps:
#First, make sure you're not near the end of the round, just to be safe. There are many ways to be able to tell this, but since you're a Shaman and you're dancing, just pay attention to the log: if the "Dancing Shamanic Dance" message has just appeared (automatically, cause it also appears right after you click the dance button), that means a new round has just started.
#Pause the game, enter the inventory screen, right-click the potion and choose 'drink potion'.
#Quickly unpause and pause again, to allow your character to actually drink the potion. As long as you're not suffering from a slow effect, it should happen immediately right after you unpause, so there's no need to wait for it.
#Re-enable the Shamanic Dance, by clicking the button.
#Done, you can unpause at will now. 
Technically speaking, you can use this exploit to perform other actions with a Shaman and still keep up the Shamanic Dance's effects, but anything other than drinking a potion tends to take more time (especially some actions where your character might not act immediately), so it's harder to do anything else consistently.
===Waiting===
Most enemies have spells encoded on items that have limited timers, so by not pausing the game in places like the Temple of Bhaal or the Northern Island, bosses becoming much weaker in time due to their protection spells running out.
===Wand of Lightning Trick===
The Wand of Lightning in BG2 and BG2EE (but not BG1 or SoD) fires up to 6 lightning bolts, each with their own target. This trick duplicates up to 6 times the effects of an item, ability or a memorized self-target spell, such as Sunfire and Mordenkainen's Sword. 
To perform this trick for memorized self-target spells and abilities, select 6 targets with the Wand of Lightning, then immediately order the character to cast the spell or ability. Instead of firing 6 lightning bolts, the character will cast the spell or ability 6 times, using only a single memorization of that spell or ability. 
In no particular order, here is an incomplete list of spells and abilities that gain 6 times their effect (some require multi-classing or dual-classing):
* Mordenkainen's Sword (subject to 5 summon limit)
* Sunfire
* Limited Wish / Wish
* Cloak of Fear
* Wonderous Recall (restores 12 level 5 or lower spells)
* Mass Heal
* False Dawn
* Sunray
* Evasion / Greater Evasion
* Scribe Scroll
* Alchemy
* Divine Favor
* Boon of Lathander
This trick can also be used with certain quickslot items: choose 6 targets with the Wand of Lightning, navigate to the inventory screen and swap the Wand of Lightning for another item.
In no particular order, here is an incomplete list of items that gain 6 times their effect (some require multi-classing or dual-classing):
* Potions of Healing
* Potion of Power
* Potion of Fire Breath
* Potion of Master Thievery
* Potion of Mind Focus
* Scrolls
* Silver Horn of Valhalla / Bronze Horn of Valhalla / Iron Horn of Valhalla
* Black Spider Figurine
* Golem Manual
*Book of Infinite Spells
* Ras, the Dancing Blade (will duplicate the item 5x times when returned to inventory)
* Wand of Fire, Wand of Frost, etc
===Wild Surge: Oops, Wrong Spell===
Wild Surge: #65 (Oops, Wrong Spell) casts another spell rather than the desired one, sometimes casting a spell that was never meant to be accessible. (See the Wild Surges page for more details.)
Non-Wild Mages can apply Wild Surges to other party members and enemy creatures through the effects of Wild Magic, e.g. wielding The Brick, Wild Sling, Tunic of Blindeye or standing in the Wild Forest.
Wild Surge #65 on innate Bhaal spawn abilities, e.g. Larloch's Minor Drain, Draw Upon Holy Might, etc., can cast druid spells including permanently turning the caster into a wolf or brown bear. 
Some innate or class abilities, e.g. Detect Evil, Protection from Evil, Shadowstep, Exaltation, Divine Favor, Chaos of Battle, Create Magic Flute, etc, under Wild Surge #65 can apply Blackguard class passive abilities such as Negative Plane Protection and Resist Fear which are permanent in duration, allowing other classes to permanently gain passive bonuses of Blackguards.
Wild Surge #65 when applied to enemies also yields strange and powerful effects. Some creatures, such as Tanar'ris and Nabassu (from the level 7 Cacofiend spell), dragons and beholders, cast spells/abilities through scripts that are not accessible to player characters which can cause a Wild Surge #65. For example, Tanar'ri and Nabassu that cast Death Gaze (SPIN996.SPL) can:
* Turn any target (including summons, enemies, neutrals and party members) into Kangaxx (SPIN806.SPL). The Ring of Gaxx is dropped when slain, allowing multiple copies.
* Grant any target the Slayer ability (SPIN810.SPL). This allows the main character to gain early access to Slayer Form. Using the Slayer ability on a non-main character transforms the main character into the Slayer, not the caster of the ability.
* Turns the target into a bat/gaseous form (SPIN803.SPL). The target is permanently removed. If the main character is turned into a bat/gaseous form, the game does not immediately end if at least one other party member remains, allowing the game to continue without a main character; see section on Playing a non-main character as the Child of Bhaal for more details.
A Wild Surge #65 from dragons and beholders can:
* Grant 50k experience (JESTER effect from the Deck of Many Things)
* Grant permanent 100% elemental and magic resistance (see form change effect from the Chromatic Demon)
== Classic exploits ==
Exploits that work only on earlier EE versions and classic games, with a few exceptions.
===Algernon's Cloak===
Algernon is a portly old man on the second floor of Feldepost's Inn in Beregost. He wears what appears to be a Nymph's Cloak but it has nearly unlimited charges of Charm, which requires a very high Save vs. Breath Weapon to resist. The quest involving Algernon's Cloak does not trigger until the player arrives in Baldur's Gate, but the cloak itself is available as early as Chapter 1. Most parties would not know Algernon has the cloak, as typically only an evil-aligned party would murder Algernon and discover it, and thieves would not know some random man in an inn would possess such a powerful item.
The cloak can be used to charm almost any character in the game, allowing them to reveal information while under the charmed effect (Baldur's Gate II removes these dialogue strings, preventing players from conversing with charmed/dominated characters) and also allowing one to command them in battle. This even applies to characters far beyond the player's level and abilities, allowing some battles to be won fairly easily so long as the target fails the saving throw. Tactical use of Algernon's Cloak can allow players to command such as Taurgosz "Tenhammer" Khosann and Ardenor Crush to destroy their own Bandit Camp (as they are the strongest characters in camp) or to take over a Vampiric Wolf (immune to normal weapons) to massacre the wolf pack it is a part of.
An especially useful exploitation of the unlimited-charm aspect of the cloak is in preventing arrest in situations where thieving could be noticed. This essentially replaces the need for one or more mage members forced to expend Level 1 slots to do the same thing.
Another useful exploitation of the cloak is the ability to kill civilians for their money or objects without loss of reputation, if you have paired members. Separate the paired members by leaving one in a building or a room and dismiss the other member from the team. Charm the civilian, attack the dismissed member, and flee. The dismissed member will perceive the civilian as an enemy and attack him/her. After the civilian is killed, use the separated member to invite the dismissed member back onto the team.
===Chaos Shield Trick===
Chaos Shields can stack if they are combined in a Spell Sequencer/Trigger or (Chain) Contingency.
This is no longer possible in EE.
===Dagger of Venom===
The dagger of venom is a unique item in the Baldur's Gate trilogy. While the "venom" is depicted as a form of poison, it isn't affected by poison modifiers and is actually a special form of damage that no NPCs have resistance against. This means that any monster or NPC is stabbed by the dagger and fails the save will incur damage. In the original Baldur's Gate, even monsters that were not intended to be killed (such as the Demon Knight, Ulcaster's Ghost, Duke Eltan, Return to Candlekeep Ulraunt & Tethtoril) can be slain by the dagger. The dagger's ability to induce "poison" also gives it the ability to break scripts, as NPCs who are stabbed by it miss their timing for delivering scripts.
The best weapon to go along with the dagger are ordinary fists, as fist damage can penetrate Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. Monsters or NPCs captured by the sphere have invulnerability but low evasion, allowing a barehanded opponent to easily reduce their HP to zero and knock them out. Once unconscious, their ability to successfully save against the dagger of venom is diminished, and the dagger only needs to do 1 HP worth of damage to kill the enemy.
===Death Ray Agannazar's Scorcher===
You can multiply the effects of the scorcher loop even further by combining it with the Wand of Lightning Trick. Have two characters cast Spell Turning simultaneously using the Wand of Lightning trick and either the Spell Turning page of the Book of Infinite Spells, or a Spell Turning scroll. Have a third character cast Agannazar's Scorcher across both of them. The loop will strike 10,000 times over several rounds, enough to kill any enemy that is not immune to fire or level 2 spells. Testing killed Adalon in Legacy of Bhaal mode in just over a second.
This can also be done by using the Reflect Magic HLA from the Wizard Slayer Rebalancing mod.
===Exceeding the summon limit===
The summon limit of 5 summoned critters per map does not apply to clones. Project Image and Simulacrum clones can summon an unlimited number of critters in any area. This also allows you to summon multiple Devas or Planetars, bypassing the celestial summon limit of 1.
===Exporting===
==== Dimension Door ====
Dimension Door is a cool if impractical spell in Baldur's Gate, as the player's version is limited to line-of-sight (the NPC version is like a long-distance teleport). The spell was removed from Baldur's Gate II because it broke scripts in play testing, but it can be retained via the No Portrait Exploit where the player can teleport to line-of-site areas that are inaccessible by walking (such as the goblin pillars in Spellhold). The spell's value truly shines in the final battle at the Mana Forge, where a wizard is capable of teleporting onto any of the platforms around the forge and avoid the hordes of melee-only baatezu Melissan is constantly gating in.
The spell can still break scripts, possibly Yoshimo's (allowing him to remain with the party into Throne of Bhaal).
==== Double Ring of Wizardry ====
Some items like the Rings of Wizardry are disallowed on both fingers in Baldur's Gate II, but if one is wearing double rings going in, they're still able to gain the effects of both in BG2, they just cannot swap between items and must wear the double rings at all times.
Because the Ring of Wizardry worked differently in Baldur's Gate, granting double the Level 1 spells instead of a Level 5,6,7 spell, if the player has memorized the maximum number of spells allowed by two rings in BG1 (20) they'll retain that memory in BG2 and go overslot with the spells. As with modifying the Rings of Wizardy themselves, this means the Level 1 spells can no longer be adjusted, but it also means the player effectively has 20 Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, etc. instead of just 5.
Being able to spam Magic Missile in Throne of Bhaal becomes extremely powerful, when combined with items that reduce casting time, alacrity and time stop, it can be cast instantaneously, disrupting all moves an opponent will attempt (even walking) while inflicting upwards of 200 damage if there is no immunity or Magic Resistance.
==== Irenicus Dungeon Pause ====
When a new game is started in Shadows of Amn, a cutscene begins with Irenicus where the player character has no items. Items imported from Baldur's Gate are removed by a script at the start of this cutscene. However, there is a brief period where the player has control right before cutscene mode goes into effect. The screen is dark and because the character starts out in a cage, he/she cannot move. A quick player can pause the game during this period of freedom, and dump all items on his/her person. This avoids having the items wiped by the script and allows them to be requipped after freedom is restored. However, the Double Rings of Wizardry won't work if this method is applied.
==== No Portrait Import ====
When importing a character from Baldur's Gate or Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate II has the player reassign their stats on their character sheet, then wipes their inventory before dropping the character in the Irenicus Dungeon. However, if the player is using a custom portrait but doesn't carry that portrait over from the BG1 directory to BG2, all of this reassignment is skipped and the player is automatically forwarded through the character creation right to assigning appearance and name.
===Helmet of Opposite Alignment===
This powerful helmet was included in the original BG item list but could not be found in game until Tales of the Sword Coast, where the Demon Knight that spawns on the ground floor of Durlag's Tower is wearing it. The Demon Knight in this appearance does not have much in the way of Magic Resistance, but has high HP, suggesting BioWare intended the player to attack it but do little damage. To obtain the helmet, the Demon Knight must be killed quickly before he de-spawns. The most consistent way to do this is cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on the Demon Knight, immobilizing him, then using fists aided by Haste to reduce his HP and knock him out. Once knocked out, he can be slain with regular weapons once the sphere dissipates, or be killed through the sphere with the Dagger of Venom.
A second exploit available through use of the helmet is to permanently alter a character's alignment. When a character is wearing the helmet, apply the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity, which will invert the character's sex while also reverting their alignment back to what it was before donning the helmet. Once the curses are removed, the player will be permanently of the opposite alignment, and will behave just as an evil character would.
This alignment exploit applies in both Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II, and also alters the behavior of characters with the new alignment. For example, paladins with Lawful Evil alignment will not fall if a party's reputation plummets, and rather will complain, leave or fight the player if the party's reputation climbs too high. Use of this odd interaction with cursed items can allow players to (somewhat) legally expand the number of good, evil characters they want to party with in both games.
===Hotkey trick===
Nahal's Reckless Dweomer can be cast by any mage, sorcerer, or bard by mapping it to a hotkey. The hotkey will never deplete spell slots; NRD can be cast an infinite number of times, ignoring aura, as if the caster was under the effects of Improved Alacrity. Wild Surges are still possible, so the Wild Mage is still best at this due to the existence of the Chaos Shield spells.
This also works for Chain Contingency, but can also be cast by any druid or cleric as well.
This is no longer possible in EE.
===Icewind Dale Haste Trick===
In the original Icewind Dale, before the Enhanced Edition, haste effects actually reduced the character's round time from 6 seconds to 3 seconds. This means that hasted characters in the original game not only attack twice as many times every 6 seconds; they also activate bard songs twice as often (granting double the bonuses each round, or allowing you to sing two different songs within the same round) and even cast two spells in the same round.
Outside of Icewind Dale, in the BG saga, haste still speeds up speed timers, allowing blind thieves and Shadowdancers to backstab twice per round. But this can also prevent backstabbing by speeding up the time it takes for a thief to become visible again.
===Item Duplication===
You can duplicate items using a shop or a bag of holding. First, you need at least two (or possibly three) copies of the item you want to duplicate. Sell one copy to a shop, exit out of the shop, and then go back to the shop's menu. Purchase the item back, but instead of clicking "Done," click the inventory button on the left side of the screen, twice. You will then return to the game screen, at which point you can re-enter the shop. 
If you do this repeatedly, you can create an unlimited number of copies of the item, as skipping the "Done" button prevents the shop from deleting its own supply. Thus, you can always buy another copy. Using a bag of holding works the same way, but costs nothing.
Further testing has found that, if you are performing the trick via a Bag of Holding at least, you do not actually need two copies of the item in question. A single copy is sufficient.
This trick was introduced in one of the v2.x patches, but removed in v2.5
===Level Up Twice===
As a side effect of skipping the character creation stat reassignment, the player character is reduced to Level 1 but retains all their Experience, allowing them to repeat the level up process up through Level 7 or 9. This can double a player's HP, although ultimately it has no effect on total weapon proficiencies or spell level acquisition.
===Potion Swap Glitch===
You can use any item by right-clicking a potion in the inventory, clicking "Drink Potion," and then quickly switching the potion out for another item. This would allow a mage to use a Potion of Invulnerability or a cleric to use the Dispel Magic ability of Carsomyr.
If you use this glitch on a gem, you can set the gem's count number from 1 to 0. If you do it once more, the gem's count number will underflow and become 65,535. Selling the stack of gems will net tens of thousands at minimum, and can be done quickly and indefinitely. In BG1 and IWD, this can also be done with potions by holding the potion in the inventory screen before the character attempts to drink it. In IWD2, this can also be done to duplicate Oils of Fiery Burning, or any scroll that can be cast on the ground and not just on a living target.
This no longer works in the Enhanced Editions.
===Rejiek Hidesman Trick===
When you attack Rejiek Hidesman in his home, you get about 29,000 experience when he delivers a few brief lines of dialogue. If you surrounded him with party members before you do this, preventing him from moving, and then repeatedly click him after the dialogue ends but before he can go downstairs, you can get that 29,000 experience over and over again without limit. If you click him too soon, you won't get the experience from the previous dialogue.
No longer possible in EE.
===Restoring Clones===
Casting Restoration on a Simulacrum clone will bump it up to the original caster's level. In the case of sorcerers, it will even give the clone the same spell slots as the caster.
In EE, clones are immune to restoration and this trick no longer works. They are also, however, immune to Level drain.
===Righteous Wrath of the Faithful Trick===
In the original Icewind Dale, before the Enhanced Edition, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful stacks with itself, granting +1 APR to characters with the same alignment as the caster. Combined with haste effects (only possible by casting Haste and RWF in the right order, or using Oils of Speed), and any party with a uniform alignment can attain 10 APR with large damage bonuses. If the party is composed entirely of gnomish cleric/illusionists, they can also attain immunity to RWF's crippling fatigue penalties by each donning a copy of the Helm of the Trusted Defender sold in Kuldahar. Level 15 druids are also immune to fatigue by default.
===Rod of Terror Trick===
Using the Rod of Terror has a chance of permanently decreasing the user's Charisma by 1, which is fatal when CHA reaches 0. But by wearing the Ring of Human Influence, one can avoid this instant death effect until the character's Charisma underflows up to 25. This 25 Charisma lasts even when the ring is removed.
Testing suggests this is no longer possible in EE.
===Scorcher Loop===
You can multiply the effects of an Agannazar's Scorcher spell (or a Lance of Disruption in IWD:EE) by having two mages cast (Minor) Spell Turning and then casting Agannazar's Scorcher targeting each other. The spell turning effect will bounce the scorcher multiple times until it is exhausted. Spells in sequencer strike as a single spell, so putting three scorchers in a Spell Sequencer and combining it with two mages with Spell Turning will deal about 800 damage. Wands of Fire also work.
The spell is extremely party-unfriendly, and both mages will suffer fire damage if they are not immune (note that MGOI will block the damage, but also cancel the loop).
The Ring of Energy will also work.
In IWD:EE, you can actually lower enemy fire resistance using the level 3 priest spell Protection from Fire, which sets fire resistance to 80%.
===Shapechange Trick===
Killing a character under the effects of Shapechange, resting, and then resurrecting the character will preserve the shapeshifting abilities from Shapechange. Thus, any character who can cast Shapechange at least once can retain the abilities permanently, except for the main character, who cannot be killed without ending the game. An early way to cast Shapechange is to use the one-time-only Limited Wish Shapechange option. You can also use CTRL-R to preserve the effects, though this requires using the console.
You can backstab using the Iron Golem's attack, which deals 4d10 base damage.
This trick no longer works in the current version of the Enhanced Edition. There is, however, a complicated workaround (see EE section above).
===Slayer Trick===
Casting Mirror Image can block the final 1500 magic damage that triggers 44 seconds after entering Slayer form. After surviving that damage, you can maintain Slayer form indefinitely. You can also use the spider gnome trick to remove the Slayer's natural weapon using a Shocking Grasp Minor Sequencer or scroll, or casting Minute Meteors via an EE-exclusive robe. You will then be able to attack using any weapon while still in Slayer form (though you will no longer have the Slayer's immunities to various disabling effects).
One of the EE v.2.x updates removed this trick.
===Spider Gnome Trick/Shocking Grasp Trick===
By switching to the spider form from Polymorph Self and then using a Shocking Grasp spell put in a Minor Sequencer, any mage can set his or her attacks per round to 4 using any weapon, as Shocking Grasp removes the spider's natural weapon, but does not return the mage to natural form. It works especially well with cleric/mages and Jan Jan's Flasher Master Bruiser Mates, as it cures one of their primary weaknesses: low APR. The high APR actually allows Jan to reliably stun-lock Kangaxx.
As of one of the v2.x updates, the spider gnome trick no longer works in BG2:EE.
===Stackable Bard Songs===
Bard songs stack with themselves. By casting multiple Mislead spells and having each Mislead clone sing a song, you can stack the bonuses for the entire party. This works best with Skalds and the Enhanced Bard Song.
Removed by EE v2.3, only different type of songs stack.
===Stackable Hardiness===
Hardiness stacks with itself, activating three uses will allows warrior classes to gain 120% physical resistance, they actually heal from being hit by physical attacks.
No longer possible in EE.
===Suldanessellar Pause===
After the battle with Irenicus in the Abyss, the player is transferred back to Suldanessellar for a cutscene. If the player is quick enough, he/she can pause the game. This prevents Ellesime's script from triggering, which removes the player's ability from initiating action. The player must then attempt to talk to Ellesime, but veer off at the last second, and repeat this until Ellesime's script breaks and she no longer attempts to initiate dialogue. Talking to Ellesime after her script has broken will resume the cutscene, but the party can also kill the elves present in the room, although doing so will prevent the proper ending of the game.
If you hate Ellesime and lament the inability to kill her at any point in the story, this is your one and only chance to do it without the game preventing or punishing you for it.
===Reequipping Items as the Slayer===
When transformed into the Slayer, the player's magic resistance is set to 40. Removing and reequipping items such as Balduraan's Cloak will reapply the cloak's bonuses to the new form. This is because items such as the cloak merely add or subtract stats to the player's character sheet, while items such as armor set the stat to a certain amount. May not work in TOB or EE.
===Super Slayer===
It is possible to transform into a golden, glowing, bloodlusted and virtually invincible Slayer through the interaction of several bugs. In this form, the player is a one-man holocaust capable of wiping out so many enemies in "endless spawning" areas such as Yaga-Shura's camp or Sendai's North Tunnels, it breaks the scripts and stop spawning monsters. Yaga-Shura himself, despite being immortal, will fail his save versus fear and flee in terror should the player damage him enough and/or slaughter his army in front of him. Even CLUA console summoning armies of dragons, liches, Ascension bosses or even Improved Demogorgons, fall faster and harder than logs to a lumberjack's axe.
The transformation requires a wizard to abuse Find Familiar and the Export bug, to raise his/her max HP above 700. Ideally, if the player has the patience, it should be 2500+ HP to max out the effect. Then, the player uses Chain Contingency and sets target to "self" and condition to "on sight", with two Tenser's Transformation and one Improved Haste selected. Transfom into the Slayer and find a hostile.
The contingency will trigger, giving the player over 1500 HP. Then, the player has to wait out the damage checks and absorb the 1500 damage dealt by the final check. The player will lose the "slayer claw" weapons and regain use of their primary weapon, while retaining the Slayer's 25/25/18 stats, 4 attacks/round, and magic resistance.
While in the "Super" form, where the Slayer is golden and under the effects of dual Tenser's Transformation and Improved Haste, the player has 8 attacks/round, a THAC0 in the -40's, a -24 AC, and (depending on how much HP starting), 1000-9999 HP. Even with a magic resistance of 40, it is almost impossible to take damage, let alone take die, and the player is capable of shredding large armies of enemies in seconds due to the high attacks, accuracy and enormus damage output. Using the Staff of the Magi, which functions as a +5 weapon, the player can hit any opponent in the game while continuously turning invisible and disspelling all protective magic.
The form is especially deadly with Erinne Sling +4 and the Bag of Plenty +2, using a basic script such as "attack nearest enemy". This combination arms the Super Slayer with a gattling gun, as the player no longer has to move within melee to massacre enemies. +4 bullets will kill Kangaxx, Melissan, Demogorgon, and anything that dares breath air within 6 seconds. Even normal bullets will do 24-30 damage to bosses per bullet, and with 8 per round, there is a high chance of a critical hit.
Even after the "super" mode ends, the player will remain in the normal Slayer form after sleeping, retaining their high natural HP but losing the ability to regenerate damage if their natural Constitution is above 20. The form is not indefinite, there is a high but almost unreachable in realistic conditions timer set as the transformation's duration. Item-cast spells such as the Improved Haste or Improved Invisibility, from the Improved Cloak of Protection +2, can still be used in the Slayer form.
Tenser's Transfomation and Improved Haste are still subject to dispelling, but this is usually not a problem as the Super Slayer kills enemies too quickly for a dispel to be successful, has the speed to outrun non-targeting dispelling projectiles, and (if using a sling) the ability to inflict damage beyond the range of the spell's reach.
All Slayer forms terminate when exiting the map, as there is a script in place that ends the transformation for key events, cutscenes or moving from place to place, intended to prevent the transformation from killing the player while they are unable to end the form. This forced reversion is not present in the Shadows of Amn maps.
The transformation can be achieved in Shadows of Amn without Throne of Bhaal installed, but its ferocity is not as evident because there are fewer impressive enemies to rip apart, as Slayer Change is not obtained until returning from Spellhold, and Level 9 spells must be cast from scroll, so Chain Contingency has limited usage compared against the expansion.
If you ever wanted to know what Bhaal would be like in-game, this is basically it.
The bugs abused:
Tenser's Transformation: doubles the player's original HP, not their current HP (set to 100 as the Slayer), and stacks with itself since it wasn't meant to be cast again while in the transformed state. This also gives the signature golden glow.
Find Familiar: gives a permanent HP boost that is retained if the character is exported.
Chain Contingency: No casting time, so it is an abusive way to cast three spells at once.
Slayer transformation: To kill the player after staying in the Slayer form too long, BioWare chose to deal 1500 irresistible damage to the character in lieu of using the kill op code, which could fail under certain circumstances. Since the game was not designed to have a player with HP that high, it was guaranteed to work outside of the situation described above.
Line of Sight: The player must move out of line of sight to successfully set up the Chain Contingency without triggering it in wizard form. Potentially, this allows the Super Slayer to be achieved multiple times per battle but requires tricky maneuvering to prevent premature ignition.
===Universal Stealth Trick===
By mapping stealth to a hotkey, any character can attempt to hide in shadows, though characters who are not thieves, rangers, and monks will have poor stealth scores.
== Additional Sources and references ==
* Exploits, Tricks, and Nonstandard Tactics by semiticgod, special thanks to Alesia_BH, Alesia_B_H, Arctodus, Artemius_I, Arunsun, bob_veng, Caeria, CrevsDaak, edsterz, Gallowglass, Gotural, Grond0, Grum, histamiini, lroumen, OlvynChuru, Pantalion, profanitywarning, Saros, semiticgod, plus all discoverers whose names cannot be found and thus cannot be documented
Category:Cheats
Category:Game mechanics