“BG:DA I” has an interesting strategy which can be silly, but fun: play the elf, and go through all of Act I saving up your experience points. Spend on on Magic Missle, but otherwise, horde them and be careful to kill everything you can. You’ll need to turn the elf into a heavily-armored sword-swinging tank, but it’s worth it.

Right after you kill the Beholder, you should be able to buy the delicious package of death which is Ball Lightning, or, as I like to call it, The Spell That Kills Things You Don’t Even See Yet. It’s surprisingly effective.

“Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance II” was written by another design group, but it’s still quite a lot of fun. Ranged weapons, which were almost useless in the first game, were pumped up to a shameful level. Ammo no longer has to be bought. Fairly early on, I had a Dark Elf Monk with a rapid-fire crossbow of flame conducting recon by fire: shoot some bolts offscreen, and if you hear a scream, fire for effect until their agonized squeals stop. Repeat as necessary. It’s like bringing an M-60 to a swordfight.

The game also has a sweet magic item system that lets you build items yourself. This means that no matter how rich you get, you can always plow another hundred thousand or so to get another +1 to your crossbow.

Bad news is that the game doesn’t look at saved games from the first volume — you can’t load an old character, and when you meet the characters from the first game … they’re not the ones you played. Sorta sucks.

Probably my favorite, though, is “Champions of Norrath”, which was done by the same team that did the first game. The Shadowknight — the Drow — have the most hilarious but useful combat spell I have ever seen in a life of gaming.