The characters of Baldur's Gate II appear in the 2000 Dungeons & Dragons role-playing video game Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, its 2001 expansion Throne of Bhaal, and its 2013 remaster Enhanced Edition. Set in the Forgotten Realms fantasy world, the games follow a player-created protagonist who is a Bhaalspawn, a child of the dead god Bhaal. In Shadows of Amn, the protagonist assembles a party of adventurers in order to pursue the villainous Jon Irenicus through Athkatla, the capital city of Amn, while dealing with various competing factions and organizations along the way. In Throne of Bhaal, the protagonist travels through the neighbouring country of Tethyr and comes into conflict with several other Bhaalspawn.
Shadows of Amn has sixteen recruitable companions, including the returning Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc, Edwin Odesseiron and Viconia DeVir from the first Baldur's Gate. BioWare developed a smaller cast for Shadows of Amn compared to its predecessor, giving the companions more dialogue, personal quests and relationships with one another. Four of these companions could become romantic partners for the protagonist. Throne of Bhaal adds Sarevok, the principal antagonist of the first game as a recruitable companion. The story was also adapted into novels by Philip Athans and Drew Karpyshyn, which replace the customizable protagonist with an authored character named Abdel Adrian.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition continues the stories of Neera, Dorn Il-Khan and Rasaad yn Bashir from Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, and introduces Hexxat and Wilson, for a total of five additional recruitable companions.
Reviewers praised the companions' personalities and interactions, although later criticism has also examined the limitations of their apparent independence and the treatment of romance as a series of prescribed choices. Retrospectives have identified the cast of Baldur's Gate II as an influence on the companion writing in BioWare's later games.
Concept and development Following the first Baldur's Gate, BioWare sought to place greater emphasis on the relationships between party members. Producer Ray Muzyka outlined an ambitious feature list for the sequel that included character relationships comparable to those in the Final Fantasy series. BioWare consequently reduced the number of companions and expanded their histories, motivations and interactions. Several characters who appear in Baldur's Gate II originated in tabletop Dungeons & Dragons sessions held by lead designer James Ohlen. Most of these characters originated as player characters from two D&D campaigns run by Ohlen — Forgotten Realms and a Dark Sun/Planescape sequel — who were adapted for the video game while retaining their original names.
According to writer David Gaider, Ohlen outlined the main events of quests and reviewed the writers' work, while allowing more freedom in optional stories. The team sought to give companions complete character arcs rather than only distinctive personalities. Much of the dialogue is presented as text, with selected passages voiced. Writer Lukas Kristjanson recalled the project's scale through Jaheira's dialogue, which he thought exceeded that of the first game's companions combined.
The decision to include companion romances was also influenced by Final Fantasy VII. Oster recalled that Ohlen was impressed by its character interaction and romance, while David Gaider said that Ohlen subsequently assigned him to develop romances for Baldur's Gate II despite Gaider's initial reluctance to write them. BioWare initially planned six romances, divided equally between male and female companions. Planned romances for Valygar and Haer'Dalis were cut amid uncertainty about the feature and difficulties completing the existing relationships. The original game allows male protagonists to romance Aerie, Jaheira or Viconia and female protagonists to romance Anomen, subject to additional restrictions. The relationships progress through conversations and can end in response to the player's choices. Gaider recalled that the writers approached these as additional character stories and were surprised by their popularity after release. Throne of Bhaal continues these romantic storylines.
The game represents party members through portraits and animated sprites. Portraits appear in dialogue, character records and the party interface; the smaller figures used during play share designs according to race and character class, with variations in colouring and equipment. Pre-release coverage showed revised portraits for Imoen, Minsc and Jaheira and reported that their original actors returned to record new dialogue.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, developed by Overhaul Games, features Neera, Dorn and Rasaad who return from Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, while the vampire thief Hexxat and the grizzly bear Wilson are introduced as new recruitable companions. The additional humanoid companions have personal storylines and romances extending into Throne of Bhaal.
Characters The games take place in the Forgotten Realms, principally in the nations of Amn and Tethyr in the continent of Faerun. The original game offers sixteen recruitable companions, with Sarevok added in Throne of Bhaal. In the standard single-player campaign, the player character is the former Ward of the mage Gorion, and can recruit up to five companions at a time. Companions participate in quests and conversations, and respond to the party's conduct according to their personalities and moral alignments. Their disagreements can lead to departures or infighting within the party.
The protagonist's name, gender, race and class are chosen by the player. Raised by the Harper member Gorion in the library fortress Candlekeep, Gorion's Ward discovers in the first Baldur's Gate that they are one of the Bhaalspawn, mortal children of the god of murder. After defeating their half-brother Sarevok, Gorion's Ward and their companions are captured by Irenicus. The opening of Shadows of Amn establishes connections to the first game's cast through Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc, but also introduces their losses: Imoen and the protagonist have been tortured, Minsc's companion Dynaheir has been killed, and the party later discovers the desecrated body of Jaheira's husband Khalid. Their shared grief and anger becomes motivation for pursuing Irenicus.
The search for Irenicus initially concerns the rescue of Imoen, but later becomes a struggle to recover the protagonist's own stolen soul. In Throne of Bhaal, the protagonist confronts rival Bhaalspawn and ultimately chooses between remaining mortal and becoming a deity.
Returning companions Imoen Imoen is a thief and mage, the protagonist's childhood friend and foster sister. After escaping from Irenicus's lair, she is arrested along with Irenicus by the Cowled Wizards, an organisation of magic-users empowered to regulate the use of wizardly magic by the people in Athkatla, after battling her tormentor with magical spells. She is taken along with Irenicus to Spellhold, an asylum for magic-users; there, Irenicus reveals that she is also a Bhaalspawn and steals her soul for his sister Bodhi. Imoen can rejoin the protagonist after their escape, and her soul is recovered by defeating Bodhi.
Imoen's expanded importance in the sequel grew partly from circumstances surrounding her creation for the first Baldur's Gate. Kristjanson recalled that she was added late in development to provide a non-evil aligned thief early in the campaign. With the voice-recording budget exhausted, he constructed her dialogue from recordings originally made for a discarded guard character named Pique. The resulting character had no independent confrontations or conversations with other companions, which Kristjanson believed inadvertently made her relationship with the player appear unusually close. Her unexpected popularity contributed to BioWare's decision to make her the protagonist's half-sister and a central character in Baldur's Gate II.
Contemporary and later writers particularly noted the change in Imoen between the two games. Steven Bellotti of RPGamer contrasted the "sprightly little sister" characterization of the original game with the darker and more brooding personality she displays in the sequel. Paul Dean of PC Gamer similarly singled Imoen out when discussing the sequel's treatment of its returning cast, describing the formerly cheerful character as exhibiting signs of post-traumatic stress after her imprisonment and torture. For the Polish localization, Linguist Bartosz Kossakowski examined her changed presentation from the youthful pronunciation of the original performance in the first game to her more conventional speech in the sequel, suggesting that the change complemented her more serious characterization. See pp. 58–60.
Jaheira
Jaheira is a half-elven fighter and druid, a member of the Harpers and a friend of Gorion. She accompanies the protagonist after Khalid's death, while her personal quest brings her into conflict with other Harpers over her loyalty to the Bhaalspawn. She is a possible romantic partner for a male protagonist, with conversations that address her grief for Khalid.
Kristjanson combined Jaheira's personal quest with her romance arc, allowing developments in one to affect the other. The resulting dialogue and timing conditions were difficult to implement and overwhelmed the team's conversation-visualization tool, Dotty.
Minsc
Minsc is a ranger from Rashemen who travels with Boo, a hamster he describes as a miniature giant space hamster. He had acted as the bodyguard of the witch Dynaheir, whose death during the party's captivity leaves him determined to oppose Irenicus. His dialogue combines extravagant threats against evil with affection for Boo and loyalty to his companions.
Edwin Odesseiron Edwin is an arrogant human mage associated with the Red Wizards of Thay. In Shadows of Amn, he works for the thieves' guild leader Mae'Var and can join the protagonist during their dealings with the guild. He pursues a Nether Scroll in the hope of increasing his magical power, but its use temporarily transforms him into a woman. His antagonism towards other companions can provoke conflicts within the party.
Viconia DeVir Viconia is a drow elf and cleric of Shar who has left the Underdark and the worship of Lolth. The protagonist can rescue her from a mob preparing to burn her in Athkatla. She is suspicious of surface-dwellers after repeated persecution, but can become a romantic partner for a male protagonist. Gaider described using the femme fatale archetype when writing Viconia's romance, in contrast to his approach to Aerie.
Companions introduced in Shadows of Amn Aerie Aerie is an avariel, an elven subspecies that possess wings. Captured by slavers when young, she was exhibited in a circus until confinement damaged her wings, which were amputated after becoming infected. She was eventually rescued and restored to health by Quayle, a gnome and potential companion in Baldur's Gate. She joins the protagonist after being rescued from an illusion affecting the circus in Athkatla.
Aerie is relatively young and inexperienced during the events of Baldur's Gate II, and her conversations concern the loss of her wings and her uncertainty about life outside the circus. She is a potential love interest for a male player character in Shadows of Amn; if the romance continues into the Throne of Bhaal, she will eventually bear the player character's child. Gaider described her romance as an adaptation of the damsel in distress archetype. Alternatively, she can form a relationship with Haer'Dalis.
Anomen Delryn