Well. Some people are powergamers and proud of it, too! Others, like to exploit bugs to use towards their advantage! Many people, like overpowered, broken, cheesy things. And cheap! So i decided to share whatever little dirty tricks i happened upon, be it from others already, or not.

1) Party of your own creation.
You might find the npcs too weak or unreliable. Either way, start a multiplayer in BG1, reroll until your stats per character are satisfactory, and have the characters created. I myself made a Fighter for main, a Paladin and a Mage. Keep in mind that certain quests can be triggered only with the presence of certain npcs in your party, or completed.

2) Begin your adventure with maximum level/xp.
In Candlekeep Inn, there are some locked chests on upper floor. One of them, contains a potion of speed (that one that makes you attack quicker). Downstairs, there is "Firebead Elvenhair". Save game next to him, drink that potion and attack him until he's dead. Try to have your hits land before his spell completes, so it can be interrupted, because in the beginning you are 1-hit. Export character, start new game, rinse and repeat until you hit 161.000 xp. Keep in mind that when you do this trick after 161.000 xp, you start a new game with the level up symbol, but when you click on it, it always and only gives you 1 HP. Another long yet cheesy way to have a lot of extra HP.

3) Double ring of wizardry.
Find the ring of wizardry in the map of Friendly Arm Inn. Export your mage character, import two of them in a multiplayer game, have 1 wear both rings, export him and start new game afterwards. In 1, first level spells were useful; doing this trick you will become an insane and unstoppable spellcaster. If you later import this character to 2, make certain to do so after beginning, in multiplayer, or else you loose the rings; in 2 you can only wear one at a time, so if you do the keep items trick, you still cannot wear them both afterwards. But in 2, those rings have changed anyway, so they are not that crazy as they used to.

4) Max stats without editors/hacks/cheats.
In 1, there are books that raise stats. Do not use them the moment you find them. Keep them. Have one of your characters carry them all for every stat, export him. Then start multiplayer, import 5 copies of that character with the books, and one character you want to max stats on. Have him learn the books and export the raised stats character. Rinse and repeat until he has 25 in everything. Then proceed to max your other handmade characters. In 2, those books can transfer, but wisdom and charisma ones are unusuable.

5) Keep items that certain quest-givers want to have.
There are some boots/belts/useful items, which are quest parts, and must be lost from inventory, in order for the quest to complete. You can keep them. Export/Import character, start new game.

6) Keep items in 2.
Pause the game while the screen is black, open inventory and drop every item down. Unpause, watch the cutscene, and pick everything up. Keep in mind that most items kept thusly from BG1, will be incorrect or with changed names, compared to their BG2 equivalants. Like the sword of Balduran, which in 2 says: "proficiency type: LARGE SWORDS", and in 2 you can find it with new model and correct description for purchase.

7) Special vendors in 2 without cheats.
There were 2 vendors with special merchandice. One of them exists in this current, GOG version. If you want the other one added, you can download the data file (not a cheat) from a place like sorcerer's. Repeat, it is not a cheat, but a file present only in the collector's edition. Just to be sure, though, you can always download both files.

8) Infinite xp in 2, start game at max level/xp.
Create 3-4 characters in BG2, or better yet, transfer them from completed BG1 over to 2. Yes, those with the 25 to all stats. And with the kept items.

(i myself took the fighter main, cloned him 3 times, and turned all 3 of them into berserkers. One berserker i dualled to mage at level 10, maxed him to 30 mage. Another, i dualled him to priest, at level 12, and maxed him at 39 priest. The other, i dualled him to thief, at level 14, and maxed him to thief, 39 level. Finally, i imported the paladin, turned him into cavalier, and maxed him at 34 level. i abandoned the pure mage)

Start Multiplayer. Import all 4 of them. Go to the Bridge District. Enter the tanner's. Surround him, carefully, as to prevent him from escaping. Save game. Have one character attack him. He talks to you, giving 22.000 xp. After this, quickly and repeatedly, TALK to him with the character attacking him. Left click-enter, left click-enter, quickly, many times, spam! When a level up comes, pause, allocate points, unpause and continue. If he happens to disappear, export all your characters, load game, delete the defaults/enter the previously exported with the progress they made, and load game. Rinse and repeat, until you hit 8.000.000 xp. Then start a new game, for your serious, final playthrough. In multi. And if you wish, transfer the save from the multi folder to the single folder, because you are badass and because you can.

9) Items of importance. Have those transferred from 1. If you do not already know why, do not ask; do it.
Golden Pantaloons.
Helm of Balduran.

10) Balduran set/aura glow.
I managed to gather all Balduran items. Helm, Sword/Shield from 2, Plate from 2, Cape from 1 (the one that the harlot gave us), Sword and unusuable Dagger from 1, and had my Cavalier happily wear them. Not only did his AC drop very low (a good thing, for those that are new to game), but he got a nice, blue aura/glow around him on game screen, very similar to those auras from Diablo 2 completed item sets! It doesn't seem to add stats, functionality or anything of use, just the effect; it is eerie and funny!

11) Finally, i forgot another trivial thing. In Baldur's Gate 1, whenever you level up, save before getting the changes, and load until you get the max HP for your class and stat. Before importing that character to 2 though, you have to change 2's difficulty settings to AD&D by the book, before importing, or else they will have lowered HP than they did at the end of 1. After you successfully get them started in 2 though, and you export them in 2 (which means HPs, stats etc are being kept), you can reset the setting to medium (learning all spells without failure, HPs roll max at level up, etc.).

12) And the infinite HP trick of BG2! Summon familiar, get it in your bag. Export character, start new game. After your items are lost, your extra 12 HPs from having familiar in your bag stay at their place, your own happy HP pool!

Wouldn't it be less trouble, and less time consuming, to just download Gatekeeper and/or Shadowkeeper, do all of these things with an editor, and be done with it?

No comment on the ethics/desirability of your cheats, but it seems an awful lot of work, what with creating a multi-player game, saving, moving the file, re-starting, over and and over - when you can accomplish all of this is a few minutes with an editor. I mean, if you want 161,000 xp, just give yourself 161,000 xp and be done with it! :)

To each their own, I guess. :)

yeah, either the two editors you mentioned or just use the console to spawn in the items you want (and to give XP). Seriously, it's wayyyyyyyy less time consuming.

Oh, and just a side note that I'm pretty sure both extra merchants are in the GOG version.

Well. Because a powergamer has pride. He does not use cheats. NEVER! Editors are lame, and destroy the lore too! What with the class/race combinations that cannot exist, and editors give out? Besides, the console command is pretty lame too! Can give you max xp and any item at an instant! The morality of my cheesy exploitations is one thing, but the morality of total cheating and editing is certainly another! At least i worked for my xp and items! Got all of them the glitchy -yet hard- way!

Hmmm. Joluv is not present in GoG version. I think. He is the one that was given as a bonus with preorder.. Deidre, which was on collector's edition, was added later with patch, and already exists in GoG version. If someone can say for certain that Joluv is here in GoG BG2 too, please do.

Finally, i forgot another trivial thing. In Baldur's Gate 1, whenever you level up, save before getting the changes, and load until you get the max HP for your class and stat. Before importing that character to 2 though, you have to change 2's difficulty settings to AD&D by the book, before importing, or else they will have lowered HP than they did at the end of 1. After you successfully get them started in 2 though, and you export them in 2 (which means HPs, stats etc are being kept), you can reset the setting to medium (learning all spells without failure, HPs roll max at level up, etc.).

And the infinite HP trick of BG2! Summon familiar, get it in your bag. Export character, start new game. After your items are lost, your extra 12 HPs from having familiar in your bag stay at their place, your own happy HP pool!

I don't really see a big difference between actual cheating and these 'tricks' for infinite HP and such.

Yeah, I don't really see the distinction either. Taking more time to cheat in a million xp just strikes me as taking more time and effort to do so - doesn't change the fact that you got something that you didn't earn.

I guess it's the idea that an "exploit" is some how different from a "cheat". The difference escapes me, but to each their own. If someone enjoys the game, then that's the bottom line for me. :)

It comes down to semantics, as far as I'm concerned. In the context of a cRPG, an "exploit" for me is a situation where the game, mistakenly, breaks the rules of the game system it is ostensibly recreating, or it's a situation where engine limitations and/or omissions lead to situations where unintended results can occur.

For example, in terms of BG2, having your F/Th sleep during the day, and explore at night, to increase his chance of using stealth successfully, is *not* an "exploit", it is a completely legal consequence of the game engine properly implementing AD&D rules with regards to Stealth.

Pausing the game upon start-up, after importing a BG1 [or BG2] character with items, to place those items on the ground before the cut scene [which strips you of those very items] is an "exploit" - it's an engine error and not something that should happen [Irenicus does not lock you in a cell with all of your stuff and Imoen even describes what happened *to* your stuff - being able to manage this through out of game knowledge and an engine weakness is the "exploit"].

An "exploit" relies upon mistakes, omissions and/or other "bugs" in the code of the game - things that are routinely flagged for *fixing* with patches.

So it's a definition thing I guess. I know what exploiting an opportunity is in real life, and I know what the generally accepted meaning of an "exploit" is in the context of cRPGs. And generally, in the context of cRPGs, the words mean very different things and carry very different "baggage". In my experience, anyway. In a conversation on line with another gamer, if they say they have found an "exploit", I assume that they mean they found some instance of broken code that let's them accomplish something illegal/unintended - not that they have discovered that if they take Imoen's armor off, that she can cast spells.... ;)

I had never even heard of that one, even after all these years of playing. It shows how often I use (or even discover) what you call an 'exploit'. :)

Indeed. I love folks like KiNgBrAdLeY7 that provide these lovely lists of exploits, as it gives me a great working list for the next Fixpack release.

Granted, there's nothing new here, and we can't fix the import/export cheat without source access, but still.

Yes, it's amazing what one comes across during 13 years of reading various BG message forums. :) That one I saw on the Bioware boards, I believe, shortly after BG2 came out. There are very few secrets left in the game... ;)

Well, most of these aren't cheats, exactly... Having a party of your own creation is even advised in BG2 loading quotes, actually. And i believe the tricks for maxing out xp with little play time/effort exist for game-testing and developer-testing. Plus, the infinite Hp won't be so infinite. After 3-5 at most times of giving yourself permanently 12 HP each time, you either get bored (watching the intro more times gets annoying), or realize it doesn't make too much of a difference, or game sense.

Import/export is not a cheat. It would be a waste to be unable to use your character as is for a new run, or a multi with friends. Loosing every item after all this hard work (imagine loosing all your loot from the dead dwarf's dungeon in TOTSC), THAT would suck and be a cheat (a rip off, to be precise).

A real cheat would be something like god-mode, or using a class/race combination that lorewise and ruleswise cannot exist. Not raising your stats and xp through the game itself, WITHOUT editors and console commands. And about 25 to all stats, you are the child of bhaal, wouldn't it make perfect sense? Those books were pretty awesome, too bad they weren't implemented in icewind dale...

What is or isn't a "cheat" is totally subjective - *everyone* judges this differently and most consider the "cheating" that *they* do not to be cheating. I'm as guilty of this as anyone - I do things in my games that others consider to be "cheats"... well groovy. They don't have to play my game and I don't have to play their game, so it's all good.

Whatever people do in their own game which is good for them... is good for them. Who want's to play a game using someone elses philosophy about playing the game "correctly" or "fairly" or any thing else?

IMHO, people should play the game in the way that results in them having the most *FUN*. If that means limiting one's self to a 63 point stats roll and no point redistribution, groovy. If it means using SK to make yourself a Half-Orc Fighter/Sorcerer with a 21 Int, groovy. If it means no re-loads, soloing, only fighting bare handed or using Simulcrum to make 10 or 11 Bard clones to sing for you... groovy.

No one will ever solve the "debate" over "exploits", "cheating" or even what *really* constitutes "vanilla"... so just play the game the way you want and have a good time! :) And for those who want to try out your suggestions, well it's a good thing that you posted them. They may be new to some people who want to play in this way... and now they can find them. Which is also groovy.... :)

That's not powergaming, that's cheating. Yes, taking advantage of exploits is also cheating. I'm a powergamer myself and I never use this kind of lame tricks (unless for testing purposes).

There's no functional difference between using exploits to give yourself items/xp or using the console. I prefer to use my time playing instead of wasting it going through an exploit over and over just to end up with an uber character. So I just use the console 'exploit' if i want to cheat, and save myself some time so I can get right into the game.

Whatever floats your boat.