Yes, it would be nice, and easily do-able -- you could, for example, alter the vendor that stands by the north west gate of the promenade (13 in the image) to buy *only* miscellaneous items, similar to Vai -- his role is questionable, seeing all the other vendors at Waukeen's. The only snag is that items with zero value will never be bought by anybody.

Decided to store them in the sphere, which was a good thing because I had to fetch the sewer key. Mind flayers are horrible to fight, but at least Korgan (with his +10 intelligence) was able to handle them better than the dumbwitted Minsc. By coincidence, I found out this is correct. Went back into Mae Var's old place, and saw a quest item where the barkeep once stood. Must be weeks ago in game-time, so quest items probably don't get deleted, even if you leave them on the ground.

Another question. I've not sided with Bodhi before, but did now. I'm evil after all. She said something about trading opportunities inside, but I can't find anybody useful in there at all. I've been all over her little crib (including downstairs), but only find lemmings and Bodhi, and we're about to board the boat now. Isn't it possible to trade there after all?

Oh yes, one more thing. Once inside, I picked up the Mace of Disruption +1, and saw on some BG related site that we need illithium to upgrade it. We have already completed the Sir Sarles quest, so he grabbed all the illithium. Is it impossible to upgrade the mace now? It would have been a nice niche weapon.

There is no shopping at Bodhi's (deceitful bitch), and you've missed your chance to upgrade the MoD.

Oh bugger. Would it have been possible to both upgrade the mace and to complete the Sarles mission?

Always something to work on for the next playthrough...

This time I found out it was possible to poison some guards at Brynnlaw. Neat. Wish there were more non-violent options like that. Although I of course went back afterwards and killed them anyway for the XP :D

Yes, but you need both, and you need to hide the real Illithium in a container somewhere before you go to see Sarles, because he will always take the real one if you have both. Of course, there's always murder for the evil party. >:-E

Or using the console or an editor to cheat yourself either the real Illithium or the mace itself.

Then again, you could probably murder and then otherwise play good and still end up with a good reputation, especially if you tithe to the church. (Isn't it scary that all you need to do is tithe and you're a good upstanding citizen even though you *murder*ed someone?)

Disclaimer: Does not work in real life.

I could argue the murderer who felt guilty enough to try to make up for the crimes is more honorable than a person with the first instinct to cheat at every situation. Could be a sociopath but I'm not a brain doctor I'm just a priest of lathander.

Here are my two replies:

First, I don't like priestly types, and I *especially* don't like how so many games give them a monopoly on healing magic. (Interestingly, Baldur's Gate 2 is not one of those games, thanks to spells like (Limited) Wish and Summon Planetar, and the combination of Rods of Resurrection and Project Image.)

Second, I would argue that cheating to work around design flaws in a game (like permanent missables) is acceptable. Also, keep in mind that it isn't a competition.