A list of the arc and sidequest villains encountered in Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II.

Warning: MASSIVE spoilers for the entire series ahead.

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Tales of the Sword Coast Antagonists

Minor Antagonists

Shandalar

A mage living in Ulroth's Beard. He wants the party to visit a mysterious island in the middle of an icy sea in order to retrieve his cloak, and—depending on the party's prior actions—isn't necessarily willing to take no for an answer.

Laser-Guided Karma: Two-fold.
- Firstly, when the party reaches Baldur's Gate, they can be given the mission to steal several spell components from Shandalar's daughters; while there are non-lethal ways to accomplish this, it's also possible for the party to simply murder his daughters and take the components. If they do this, though, then when the party encounters Shandalar in Ulroth's Beard he will simply dump them on the ice island without giving them a chance to decline the mission or even prepare for it.
- Secondly, if the party goes to Ulroth's Beard first, undergoes the Ice Island "mission" and objects to Shandalar's behavior & attitude, then they can always deliberately go after his daughters as part of the same quest.
Omniscient Morality License: Invoked. After visiting Ice Island, the player can call him out on just leaving all those other mages stranded there to suffer and go mad. Shandalar simply waves off their protests, basically proclaiming that he has the right to do whatever he wishes to those who end up there.

Ice Island mages

Seven mages trapped on a small island in the middle of an icy sea. The island draws in anyone who attempts to teleport past it and prevents individuals from teleporting away; as such, various high-level mages have been stranded there. The party is sent to the island in order to retrieve a cloak; however, when the mages on the island realize that the party possesses a wardstone which enables the bearer to escape the island, they all attempt to kill the party and take the wardstone for themselves.

Their names are Beyn, Marcellus, Andris, Garan, Cuchol, Tellan, and Dezkiel.

Apocalyptic Log: Dezkiel has a scroll on his person which chronicles his steadily deteriorating mental state. By the time the party meets him, he's completely insane and cannot be reasoned with, only killed.
Flunky Boss: Garan's pet ankhegs help him battle the party.
I Surrender, Suckers: Tellan can be persuaded to surrender and assist the party, but once the party obtains the cloak they were sent to find and prepares to leave, Tellan betrays them and attempts to seize the cloak (and wardstone permitting egress) for himself.
Mr. Exposition: Andris is as hostile as the other mages, but before fighting the party he's nice enough to explain where they are and why nobody's been able to leave.

Karoug

The savage, almost feral leader of the wolfweres on the Isle of Balduran.

Boss in Mook's Clothing: He regenerates health incredibly fast and is immune to almost every weapon in the game; even in the Enhanced Edition, the number of weapons that can hurt him can be counted on one hand.^note
Fully-Embraced Fiend: He and his underlings embrace the savagery of their animal side in full, for which Kaishas and her pack look down on them.
Jerkass: He's really rude and cruel in his dialogue. It's not difficult to get on his bad side.
Our Werewolves Are Different: He's a wolfwere, a corrupt offshoot of baseline lycanthropy that has more in common with the bestial side than the anthropomorphic one.

Kaishas Gan

Voiced by: Jennifer Darling

Leader of a small farming community on the Isle of Balduran.

Affably Evil: Genuinely thanks you for saving her people, and insists that her village is a collective family that would welcome your party into it with open arms.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She seems perfectly nice and hospitable at first, but after you kill Karoug for her, she notices your party have been infected by lycanthropy and wants to force you to help the other werewolves escape the island. If the party refuses, she sics all the other werewolves in town on the party.
Even Evil Has Standards: Is disgusted by how Karoug and his kind conduct themselves, insisting that sometimes looking like a beast doesn't mean you have to act like one. Her community is built on that principle.
Morton's Fork: If you're willing to join her, her Jerkass Number Two reveals he's poisoned the village against you for being different. She ends up telling you to run for it.
Our Werewolves Are Different: Unlike Karoug and his wolfweres, Kaishas and her werewolves are more capable of maintaining their human forms and are more 'civilized.' They're still perfectly willing to slaughter the party, though.
Time-Delayed Death: After she infects the party with lycanthropy, the party only has a couple days to defeat her and cure themselves before turning into werewolves themselves.

Selaad Gan

Also called Mendas, Selaad is Kaishas's husband and partner. He managed to escape the Isle of Balduran and has searched incessantly for a party of adventurers he can trick into returning to the island with proper sea charts so the rest of his pack can escape as well.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He seems perfectly nice when he hires the party to find the Isle of Balduran, and he offers to pay a munificent amount of gold too. But when the party gets back and he sees that they neither died nor joined his pack, he immediately tries to slaughter them.
Poor Communication Kills: Pretty much everything that goes wrong on Balduran's Island is on his head, since Mendas could easily have sent you with a Trust Password or used his real name to make the villagers realize why you've been sent there. CHARNAME is even allowed to point out that We Could Have Avoided All This upon returning to the mainland, which only enrages him further.

Durlag

Voiced by: Bill Martin

The dwarf who built what later became known as Durlag's Tower. A famous mercenary who became rich after decades of adventure, Durlag retired and had his tower built so that he—unlike his wandering father—would have a place to call home and raise his family. However, tragedy struck when shapeshifting monsters killed and replaced his family, then tried to kill him so as to lay claim to his treasure. Durlag slew all his foes but went mad with grief at his loss, spending the rest of his days setting increasingly complicated and lethal traps all throughout the ruined tower. His ghost still haunts the place, and the party must deal with the spectre in order to reach the lowest level of the tower.

Driven to Madness: Being stalked for weeks through the corridors of his own home, his family wiped out by shapechanging monsters who often forced him to slay them whilst they wore the faces of the same kith and kin they had picked off, drove Durlag absolutely bonkers.
Dug Too Deep: The construction of the tower drew the attention of illithids, who sent an army of doppelgangers to claim Durlag's treasure for them. The monsters proceeded to slaughter Durlag's family and completely traumatize the dwarf.
Tragic Villain: As much of a danger as his tower poses to those who dare venture into his tower, Durlag never wanted to become a killer and a maniac.

The Demon Knight

Voiced by: Arthur Burghardt

A Demon Knight which has taken up residence in the lowest level of Durlag's Tower.

Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Tricks Charname into clearing out all the traps and other monsters from the tower so that he can use it as a permanent base. Of course, this plan falls apart if Charname manages to slay him.

Aec'letec

A demon trapped in a dagger held by the Demon Knight in Durlag's Tower. If Charname slays the Demon Knight and retrieves the dagger, cultists steal the dagger back and summon Aec'letec, making him the final boss of the Durlag's Tower sequence.

Self-Recovery Surprise: If you kill Aec'letec without killing his cultists first, he can just resurrect himself in the body of the nearest cultist, putting him back at full health as if you hadn't fought him at all.
Superboss: The boss at the end of the bonus dungeon Durlag's Tower. He has nothing to do with Sarevok or the Iron Throne, and he's arguably the toughest fight in the game to boot.
Time-Delayed Death: His death gaze can kill any party member, but it takes a few turns to work. If you're not paying close attention to status effects it's entirely possible to slay Aec'letec and think you've won the fight only to see one of your characters suddenly explode from a death gaze they got hit with just prior to Aec'letec dying.
Weaksauce Weakness: Being a demon, he can be stunned by the Hold Monster spell.

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn Antagonists

Drow of Ust Natha

Phaere Despana

Voiced by: Charity James

An influential and ambitious drow cleric. The daughter of Matron Mother Ardulace and her heir apparent. She becomes the player's (disguised as a drow) employer during the Underdark arc, and takes you on as her confidant and potential lover (if you're a male). Has some ambiguous history with Solaufein, and some big plans for Ust Natha and the future of her House.

Abusive Parents: Her mother was and still is verbally abusive to her, and resorted to Cold-Blooded Torture to rid her of emotions when it turned out she felt genuine love for her boyfriend Solaufein. She gleefully pays the old lady back near the end of the Underdark storyline.
Adaptational Sexuality: In the novels, Phaere is made into a Depraved Bisexual who forces Imoen to have sex with her; it's alright, though, because Imoen became a lesbian out of nowhere to accommodate it. In the game, Phaere doesn't make the offer of sex to a female CHARNAME, and has no undertones indicating she's interested in women.
Arc Villain: Arguably fulfils this trope better than her mother, since she ends up usurping control of House Despana at the end, albeit for all of twenty seconds.

Backstab Backfire: She recruits the player's party to murder her mother by proxy. They can either betray her to her mother, or double-cross them both. Even if they go along with her plan, the demon she was bartering with reveals their true nature to her, and so the party is forced to slay her before they can flee.
Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Solaufein says as much, stating she genuinely cared for him when she was younger, and for that she was tortured until her sweet nature was purged from her body.
Bodyguard Betrayal: What kills her, or depending on player choice, at least leads to her death. You being the bodyguards.
Broken Bird: Cold-Blooded Torture does that, sadly.
Cain and Abel: Killed her siblings to further her position.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Her mother subjected her to this in her backstory to purge her of compassion. It worked.
- It's also her preferred threat material.
Dark and Troubled Past: She apparently Used to Be a Sweet Kid, and had strong, loving feelings towards Solaufein. This bothered her mother (since in drow society, men of his status are usually little more than pleasure tools and breeding studs, and feelings of compassion and trust are for the weak), who had Phaere brutally tortured for days until her compassion was stripped away.

Destructive Romance: With Solaufein.
Dragon with an Agenda: To her mother.
- Amusingly, you are this to Phaere.
Ethical Slut: By drow standards. She shows attraction to the male PC early on, and lets you into her bed after you've become her top enforcer.
Evil Counterpart: She's essentially the Evil Foil to Viconia. She has all of the boons in life that Viconia never enjoyed, and made many of the bad choices that Viconia walked away from. Both are victims of drow culture for reasons rooted in similar places.
Evil Matriarch: Though her rule doesn't last long.
Faux Affably Evil: Several times in front of the player's eyes, she switches from calmly offering the player a task and praising their drow-like traits to yelling at Solaufein and threatening him with torture (and worse) if he doesn't cooperate.
For the Evulz: She has you massacre a group of Svirfneblin for virtually no other reason than to keep them fearful of the drow.
Framing the Guilty Party: If you go along with Soluafein's plot, then Phaere gets what's coming to her via this. She also does the exact same thing to her mother, although that's also a well-deserved end, in fairness.
Hair-Trigger Temper: She's sweet as silk when you have her favour, but flies off the handle the moment you incur her annoyance.
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Ultimately. She's captured off-screen and rescued by a man she loathes, her missions involve petty harassment of the Duergar and killing a weak beholder (and also the wrong beholder, as her mother furiously points out); despite her unsubtle hatred of the lesser races, it's possible to sleep with her (you, a human/surface elf/dwarf/gnome/whatever in disguise), she's frequently lambasted by her mother for her alleged stupidity and weakness, and she utterly fails in her usurpation of House Despana. Bonus points if her ex boyfriend (whose death she ordered) survived and had you swap out her fake eggs for his own, leading to her embarrassing downfall at the hands of the same demon who had just killed her mother.
Killed Mid-Sentence: "NO! I WILL DESTROY YOU, VELDRIN! I WILL FIND YOU AND EAT YOUR BEATING HEART! I WILL—" Like mother like daughter.
Lust Object: You can lie to her and say that she's yours.
Love Makes You Evil: Literally. Her love for Solaufein is what compelled her mother to torture her feelings for him away, and pretty much turned her into a bitter sociopath.
Love Is a Weakness: Came to this conclusion after her torture.
Phaere: All love is foolish.
Mate or Die: This is lingering over you when she propositions you in her bedroom. There are several ways to handle it, including simply doing the deed, or thinking up a convincing enough excuse not to.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Probably, anyway. She plans to betray her mother, who had her tortured until she forswore both love and her good nature. It's highly unlikely she doesn't have at least a little revenge on her mind.

My God, What Have I Done?: She has subtle shades of this when you bring back proof of Solaufein's death, though she gets over it.
Optional Boss: If you're complicit in Solaufein's plot, then the chaos demon will kill her right after Ardulace. Otherwise, you'll have to fight her no matter what you do.
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: To Solaufein, whose death she orders later on in the plot.

Self-Made Orphan: Arranges her mother's death to ascend to the head of her house. But no one's going to argue that her mother had it coming.
Sex Slave: What you essentially become to her. It's not played as a particularly big deal though, given how common this is for drow. That said, if you're romancing Viconia, she will note that she will need to pay Phaere back for taking what is hers.
The Starscream: Like any ambitious drow female, Phaere has her eye on her mother's throne, and will do whatever it takes to get it.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Soluafein.
Ungrateful Bitch: She's not very receptive to you and Solaufein saving her from the ilithid, and frequently lambastes the latter.
Unknown Rival: If you're male, she can gain two: an imaginary priestess you can cite as a reason not to sleep with her (in which case, she'll accept your reluctance and promise to relieve you from said priestess's service first), and Viconia, if you're romancing her.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Although exactly how sweet is anyone's guess.
Villainous Breakdown: She has a massive one if you derail her scheme with Soluafein's plot. She has an even bigger one if you betray her to Matron Mother Ardulace, who has her executed for treason.
What the Hell, Hero?: Hitting on and having sex with her on a whim is a good way to ruin (or in Viconia's case, strain) any of your active romances.
Working with the Ex: Soluafein. It's as tense and abrasive as you'd expect.

Jarlaxle Baenre

The charming drow rogue from Forgotten Realms shows up in the Underdark arc in II to give you An Offer You Can't Refuse.

Affably Evil: As always. He's very polite to his men and to you despite blackmailing you. When the job is done he thanks you, suggests you to loot the now-unguarded tower and tells you not to bear any grudge because you won't be able to enact revenge on him.
Anti-Villain: Compared to the other villains who either want you killed, enslaved or steal your power, all he wants to do is using you in a quick get rich scheme and in-game he's more of a quest giver than actual baddie as he lets you go when you're done.
The Cameo: He's an established Forgotten Realms character and will be a little bit surprised if you don't know who he is.
Eyepatch of Power: Not shown in-game, but it's one of his characteristic traits. It's also magical, protecting him from mind reading and mental domination and allowing him to see through walls and illusions.
A Father to His Men: The reason why he's sending you after the jewels is because he doesn't want to send his own men against the guardian lich.
Hyper-Awareness: He's somehow able to see through your disguise that fooled all the other drow, including the powerful Lolth clergy.
Karma Houdini: He gets away scot-free and even lampshades it.
Manipulative Bastard: He blackmails you face-to-face to steal what he claims to be soulgems containing his men from a rival house. They're actually valuable heirloom jewels and he gets away with it.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: He's got an offer to you: Steal some jewels from a rival house for him. Your reward? Not having your drow disguise exposed, Bhaalspawn.
Refuge in Audacity: Blackmailing a powerful Bhaalspawn who have littered the Sword Coast with corpses to his/her face and getting away with it?
Signature Headgear: We can't have Jarlaxle without his flamboyant, plumed, broad-brimmed bright purple sombrero, part of his deliberate efforts to stand out as a male drow, normally beneath notice in drow society, where Red and Black and Evil All Over is the rule when it comes to fashion.

Matron Mother Ardulace

Their presence sickens me. Kill them.

Voiced by: Jane Singer

The Matron Mother of House Despana, and the de facto leader of Ust Natha. She enters into an alliance with Jon Irenicus due to their shared hatred of the surface elves.

Abusive Mom: Frequently threatens and lashes out at Phaere, and in her backstory, had her tortured for feeling too much for Solaufein. Granted, this is par for the course in drow society, but still.
Arc Villain: Of the Underdark sequence.
Asshole Victim: If you listen to her talking for a while, you'll feel no remorse over her passing.
Bribe Backfire: She attempted to bribe a powerful demon with the eggs of a silver dragon – unfortunately, her daughter swaps the eggs for fake ones which doesn't go unnoticed.
Dropped a Bridge on Her: She's set up as a formidable, ambitious, and ruthless enemy, only to be unceremoniously deposed (though granted, her death is pretty spectacular) by her daughter at the Underdark's climax.
The Dreaded: A vicious matron mother around whom even Irenicus minds his manners.
Enemy Mine: With Irenicus.
Evil Is Not a Toy: How did that little trick with the demon lord turn out for you, Ardulace?
Evil Matriarch: The drow society is matriarchal, and she's the ruler and high priestess of one of the largest cities.
Evil Plan: To steal the silver dragon's eggs and offer them to a powerful demon lord in return for its service against the surface elves, serving as the drow's strongest warrior. This would propel House Despana to the most influential of drow noble Houses.
Faux Affably Evil: She's fairly cordial when things are going her way. She flies into a rage at the slightest provocation or perceived slight.
Frame-Up: Her daughter tricks a chaos demon into thinking Ardulace had tried to scam him, ending in her death.
Gone Horribly Right: She went to depraved lengths to make her daughter an amoral, ruthless backstabber, and it worked beautifully. It also killed her.
Hair-Trigger Temper/Mood-Swinger: Like her daughter Phaere, Ardulace shifts between arrogant certainty and verbal explosions of fury at the drop of a hat.
Hate Sink: For all her cruelty and callousness, at least Phaere comes across as a bit of a Woobie when you learn she was a better person before her good side was literally tortured out of her. Ardulace seems to simply be evil to her core without an excuse, and her death is very satisfying.
Hoist by Her Own Petard: The daughter she tortured to make her more "properly drow-like" will try to arrange her death — by having her be murdered by the very demon she's summoning, no less.
Jerkass: Easy to see where Phaere gets it from.
Karmic Death: Turns out raising your daughter to be an ambitious sociopath and frequently reminding her of the lengths you took to do so doesn't always work out great for you; her abhorrent parenting and frequent verbal abuse towards Phaere causes her to kill her.
Killed Mid-Sentence: "NO! NO! LOLTH PROTECT YOUR FAITHF—"
Offing the Offspring: Executes her daughter if you tell her about Phaere's plan to usurp her. She'll mention having killed some of her other over-ambitious children too.
Oh, Crap!: When she realizes she's been duped and the demon lord prepares to kill her.
Optional Boss: Phaere usurps her regardless of whether you go along with Solaufein's plan; the only way you yourself can fight Ardulace before this happens is by breaking your disguise and massacring all of Ust Natha, or by betraying Phaere and being the 'guest of honour' during the ceremony.
Properly Paranoid: She can tell something's off about you when you first meet her. She's also fearful that the silver dragon will attack, and seals the city off before starting her ritual. Finally, she requires far more proof than your word if you rat out Phaere's scheme to her.
Religion of Evil: Both she and Phaere are quite devout in their service to Lolth.
Silence, You Fool!: Shuts Phaere down with this.
Surrounded by Idiots:
Matron Mother Ardulace: You have proven yourself competent. This is good. House Despana needs competence, a rare commodity when one is surrounded by fools.

Kangaxx

I am Kangaxx and I have been cursed. I am dead yet not dead. Cursed to eternal entrapment in this tomb by cruel enemies! Cursed to a fate worse than death!

BG2's bonus boss, Kangaxx the lich is either the hardest boss in the game or one of the easiest. You meet him as a skull, and he asks you to track down his body. If you do so, he assembles himself into a lich and attacks you. After you kill him, he turns into a demi-lich, a floating skull that spams imprisonment, the most powerful spell in the game. Unlike many bonus bosses, he's not so much more powerful than late game bosses that fighting him is pointless, as you'll still find challenge after him. Of note: Kangaxx has the highest to hit requirement of any enemy in the franchise. Unlike most of the game's bosses, only very specific strategies and weapons can defeat him.

Chaotic Evil: He doesn't care how you get to revive him, and he promises you great rewards only to break his word to give you eternal suffering.
Dem Bones: You even have to assemble his bones before you can fight him.
Fate Worse than Death: See his quote above.
Obviously Evil: His bones are described as radiating a sense of pure evil, in case you needed another hint not to trust the talking skull.
Omnicidal Maniac: "I am free! The world will burn to ash!"
Our Liches Are Different: He's a demi-lich.
Puzzle Boss: Kangaxx's second form plays completely different from every other boss in the game. If you know the correct strategies he's dead meat (provided you can chew through his more standard first form first), if you don't he'll wipe your party before you can say "what do you mean, 'weapon ineffective'?".
Ring of Power: He drops the single best ring in the entire game: The Ring of Gaxx, which was a major artifact in 1E D&D.
Sealed Evil in a Can: And one you have to intentionally unseal to fight him, despite the game practically screaming "this is a bad idea!" at you.
- Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: His body has been split up and is located in different areas around Athkatla.
Shmuck Bait: Anyone who falls for Kangaxx asking him to reassemble his body kind of deserves to be imprisoned forever, but it's the only way to earn the single best ring in the series.
Charname: Obviously I should beware offers from strange skulls in the future…
Spam Attack: As a lich, Kangaxx has all of the standard lich abilities: powerful spells, the ability to cast them immediately after one another (which normally requires an additional, special spell). As a demi-lich, Kangaxx has literally only two attacks, which he will spam like nothing else: Imprisonment, which instantly removes a party member and sends him or her to the center of the earth to be put into eternal stasis (effectively a death that requires a more exotic raise dead spell), and Wail of the Banshee, which is a simple area of effect save or die spell. He will use both constantly.
Weaksauce Weakness: The demi-lich is the most powerful undead enemy in the game... but it's still undead, so using a cheap, available everywhere Protection from Undead scroll will make the battle easy.
- The Superpowered Evil Side the PC gains in Spellhold is completely immune to the only two attacks he uses in his demi-lich form and has natural attacks that count as +5 weapons, meaning that once he reverts to this, the PC can easily solo him.
- An even easier way of beating him? The level four spell "Polymorph Self" allows the player to turn themselves into... the completely magic immune Mustard Jelly, which also has natural weapons that can pierce the demi-lich's defences. Heck, give your best warrior the Cloak of the Sewers (polymorph into a Mustard Jelly at will) and they can solo him.
- Although none of the tactics stops him from going after unprepared party members who can't leave the area, so the main fighter really needs to be fast or distract him.
- Casting the fifth-level spell "Spell Immunity" against abjuration spells completely negates his Imprisonment spam.

Lord Jierdan Firkraag

"It is, as they say, your funeral. Now I'm afraid that you must feel the wrath of the most ancient of Faerun's species. Do you think your divine blood enough to match? I highly doubt it."

Voiced by: Jim Cummings

A red dragon posing as a human lord. Firkraag shows up early to give you a quest with a promised reward of 10,000 gold, a fortune at this point in the game. It turns out however that he really wanted to lure you into a trap because of some half-explained slight he had with Gorion, and also because he's bored and wants to "study" you.

Breath Weapon: Dragon, duh. Hope you packed enough fire resistance.
Devil in Plain Sight: When you first meet him, he offers a suspiciously large amount of money for a simple troll-hunting job, and he tries to flatter you into his service from the get-go. Bad news, especially if the PC bothers to make a Detect Evil check. But the only way to advance the quest is to take his deal.
Disproportionate Retribution: And how.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: He's the one who engineered the bridge drop on Ajantis, the NPC paladin from the first game.
Even Evil Has Standards: Though he doesn't elaborate on why he seems to hold some distaste for Jon Irenicus, declaring "I will have no dealings with that creature."
Infinity +1 Sword: He has one of them, the Holy Avenger +5, in his hoard. His scales can also be used to create one of the better armors in the game.
It Amused Me: One of the reasons why he decides to meddle with you.
Our Dragons Are Different: Red dragon, and probably the closest to classic western dragons in both appearance and behavior.
Playing with Fire: His breath weapon is one of the biggest fiery booms in the game and easily incinerates unprotected characters.
Revenge by Proxy: His other reason for screwing with you is because he took a beating from Gorion, but since Gorion is dead he is content to take it out on you.
Skippable Boss: By default. He tells you outright his interest in you has ceased and he has no interest in fighting you. Depending on when you take this quest (and how much you like to cheese), taking that advice might be a good idea. You can return for that Holy Avenger later.
Superboss: One of the nastiest opponents in the game, but fighting him is not required to finish the story, or even to finish the Side Quest he appears in.
There Will Be Cake: No, he'll never give you the 10,000 gold he promised. Just kill him and take his loot.
Treacherous Quest Giver: His quest is a setup to frame you.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: A standard power for most full dragons in AD&D.

The Planar Sphere

Lavok

Valygar's ancestor who achieved immortality by draining the life force of his descendants. He built a planar sphere and departed within it to explore other planes, but recently returned with the sphere to Athkatla.

The Atoner: By the time Valygar meets him, he's an old, dying man who regrets the hubris of his youth, and just wants to smell the air of the outside world one last time. Valygar obliges him.

Tolgerias

A Cowled Wizard who wants to acquire the planar sphere for himself, even going so far as to stow away inside it once the player finds Valygar and opens it up.

Baron Ployer

"Tonight I sleep beneath rags so I could afford this wasting death for you."

— Baron Ployer

A slaver whose reputation and fortune Jaheira and Khalid destroyed as part of a mission for the Harpers, and who spends the last of his wealth in a desperate attempt for revenge.

Evil Gloating: He really just wants to see Jaheira suffer, and he's quite pleased to see the effects his curse has on her.
Hoist by His Own Petard: If you pay off his assassins sufficiently, they'll turn on him themselves.
It's All About Me: Doesn't seem to show any remorse for what he did, and only seems to regret that he lost his fortune.
Riches to Rags: Justifiably so, as he earned his fortune through slavery.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Jaheira is very proud she got him convicted and stripped of his wealth, although she regrets not being able to get him a death sentence.

Terrece

The leader of a group of mages hired by Ployer to curse Jaheira.

Every Man Has His Price: And the cost of seeing him and his team turn on Baron Ployer is well worth it.
Punch-Clock Villain: Is actually Chaotic Good according to the game's engine, but is willing to do jobs for hire. In fact, he approaches Charname with the offer to betray the Baron.

The Harpers

Galvarey

An ambitious Harper who aims to destroy the Bhaalspawn in order to ensure his own advancement in the organization.

Affably Evil: Is collected and polite during the whole trial, and is more than happy to use Charname's capture to his own ends.
Fantastic Racism: Even if he is right to be worried about Charname, he seems far too eager to condemn him/her solely on the basis of their being descended from Bhaal.
Kangaroo Court: Holds one in the Harper Hold in order to paint Charname as a monster and use his or her capture to advance in the ranks. No matter what you answer, he establishes that you can't live without violence and turns your favourite colour (whichever it is) into a proof that you favour death, blood or pestilence.
Might Makes Right: Believes that if he establishes himself as a Herald (essentially a commander of the Harpers), what he does will be right by default.
Selective Obliviousness: Even if Charname is a Lawful Good Reputation 20 paladin, Galvarey will still insist that s/he be subjected to the spell Imprisonment.

Reviane

A Harper sent to pursue Jaheira in order to bring her to justice for the destruction of Galvarey's rogue Harper group.

Apologetic Attacker: Is this if you try to persuade her to stand down, and fail.
Hero Antagonist: She is genuinely honorable with overtones of I Did What I Had to Do. In fact, if Jaheira is present, Charname refuses to attack her, and the party has a Reputation of 16 or better, she'll stand down and promise to vouch for them to her superiors.

Dermin Courtierdale

Jaheira's former mentor, and the Harper who leads the pursuit of Jaheira after Reviane is either killed or convinced that Jaheira and the Bhaalspawn are innocent. It turns out that he was working with Galvarey and also seeks to eliminate Jaheira and the Bhaalspawn in order to rise in the Harper hierarchy.

Broken Pedestal: Big time. Jaheira is sorely disappointed to find that he's taken Galvarey's side.

Kalah

A disrespected gnome illusionist with Aerie's circus, who turns a circus tent into a nightmarish maze in revenge for years of petty slights.

Deal with the Devil: Some undisclosed entity gave him his Reality Warper abilities. The Unfinished Business mod lets you explore this situation further.
I Just Want to Be Badass: Was laughed at and mistrusted for being a gnome illusionist, but he wanted to be respected for his skill. A stark contrast with fellow gnome illusionists like Quayle (his own ringmaster) and Jan.
Redemption Earns Life: If you have the Unfinished Business mod, you can meet the djinn that empowered Kalah and wish to resurrect Kalah. Turns out the gnome has learned his lesson and is more than happy to stick to the straight and narrow.
Starter Villain: The circus is right in the middle of the Waukeen's Promenade, the district of Athkatla where you exit Irenicus's lab, making it a common first stop for players upon finishing the prologue.

The Roenall Family

Lord Farthington Roenall

The leader of the Roenall family, epitomizing jerk aristocrats that looks down on the poor. He desires to own the de'Arnise Hold from Nalia's father and either succeeds either way, or finds out that a Fighter-class Charname has taken over the hold with the help of Nalia and he aggressively demands for the ownership, eventually by force.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When he appears in Nalia's father's funeral, he seemed like a jovial person, being sincere with Nalia and tells her to just call him 'Farthy' instead of 'Lord Farthington'. But if you follow through the Fighter Stronghold quest, when he first appeared, he showed his true colors and venomously tried to demand ownership of the hold and eventually staged an all-out assault.
Karma Houdini: If you are not a Fighter class, then Farthington immediately gets the Hold just like he wanted. And if you do not take Nalia into your party until Throne of Bhaal concluded, then he gets to enjoy ruling the keep. If you do take Nalia, this gets averted, whereas Nalia gets enough influence to eventually bring him to justice.
The Man Behind the Man: It is implied that the attack by Trolls to the de'Arnise Hold was initiated by Farthington himself, who collaborated with the Troll leader TorGal and promising him lots of money.
Rich Bitch: The shining example of the game (even if he is technically a Rich Bastard), and shares this through his family. He's said to enforce the rule of "Anyone who wants to be friends with our family must adhere to our rules that the poor are lower than animals and should be stamped out." which some nobles adheres. But not Nalia's main family (her aunt, on the other hand, follows nicely)

Isaea Roenall

Farthington's son and overall a pompous asshole and bastard (and referring him as that insults assholes and bastards everywhere) that inherits all of his father's distaste towards the poor. He's in a planned Arranged Marriage with Nalia, who saw him for his evilness and wanted none of that. He's also having a position of authority within Amn through connections and money, but he's also secretly behind a slaver ring running through Athkatla.

Arranged Marriage: With Nalia, and the latter was not pleased at all when it comes to him.
Insult to Rocks: Nalia said it best about him.
He is a complete bastard and calling him that insults bastards everywhere!
Karma Houdini: While he might have lost his chance for Nalia and definitely lost his position, he's still at large alive and with his father's plan more or less coming to fruition, he still gets something good out of it (and he's not amongst Farthington's troops during the assault on de'Arnise Keep, so he lived through that too). He only gets his ultimate comeuppance if you take Nalia throughout Throne of Bhaal, whereas Nalia amassed enough influence within Amn and the first thing she does is to strip Isaea of his powers and then send him to jail permanently.
The Man Behind the Man: He's behind the slaver and gladiatorial ring quest chain within Copper Coronet.
Prince Charmless: Technically, he's more of 'the son of a very influental noble', but the spirit of the trope lived with him, judging on how high nobility was seen in Athkatla. He is very devoid of charm and Nalia can see it right away to avoid the hell out of him whenever possible.
Smug Snake: Every of his words that belittles you just shows how much of a duplicitious asshole he is and when he was eventually exposed, he's got no smart remarks to back up his smugness.

The Farrahd Family

Saerk Farrahd

A businessman who destroyed the Delryn family business, and who takes every possible opportunity to rub his success in Cor Delryn's face. Depending on the player's actions, he may be the killer of Moira Delryn.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Seems to care for his son and daughter much more than Cor ever did for Anomen and Moira.
Karma Houdini / Not Me This Time: All depends on what Anomen decides to do about his sister's murder and whether he chooses to uphold the rule of law or Family Honor. If Anomen kills Saerk himself, then it turns out that some random bandits killed Moira. Not only is she left unavenged, but Anomen kills Saerk's innocent daughter and later fails his Test. If he chooses to let the law handle it, there's not enough evidence to convict Saerk, and the matter is closed...unless Charname is romancing Anomen, and later evidence emerges that Saerk did order the murder.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Part of the reason just killing him is a tempting option, as he's rich enough to avoid the consequences of Moira's murder.
Smug Snake: Shows nothing but disdain for Cor and his family, and is perfectly capable of ordering a hit on Moira. Whether or not he actually did it is something else altogether.

Yusef Farrahd

Saerk's bloodthirsty son.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Seems to care for his sister, and he is genuinely upset when Anomen kills her in vengeance for Moira's death.
We Will Meet Again: If you bring down his HP to 1, he'll teleport out while vowing revenge. Presumably, his survival is how the Order hears about Saerk and his sister's deaths.

Cor Delryn

Anomen's bitter father. He is locked in a commercial rivalry with Saerk Farrahd, and blames many of his problems on Farrahd's greed and Anomen's weakness. When his daughter Moira is murdered, he is convinced that Farrahd was to blame and pushes Anomen to take revenge.

The Alcoholic: Part of the reason for his decline, it would seem.
Honor-Related Abuse: He goes on a lot about Family Honor, and this is part of the reason he wants Anomen to kill Saerk and damn the consequences.
I Have No Son!: If Anomen refuses to kill Saerk, then Cor will disown him. However, if Anomen kills Saerk and is being romanced, Cor will eventually disown him anyway for disgracing the family name.
It's All About Me: Big time. He seems to be more angry that Saerk took something else from him than upset that Moira is dead. And if Anomen takes the lawful option for his personal quest, well...
Anomen: "Such has always been the case in this household. This is about you and only you. Your daughter's death means nothing beyond how it affects your pride and your comfort."

Deril

A cruel noble who married Cernd's wife Galia after Cernd left her for his druid circle. Deril mistreated Galia, who eventually died under suspicious circumstances, leaving Deril as the guardian of Cernd's and Galia's son.

Parental Neglect: Despite the boy being Galia's son, he doesn't care about Cernd's son at all, barely bothering to remember his name. Taken a step further when it's implied you arrived just in time to find him in the middle of sacrificing the baby to a lich for some nefarious purpose.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: If Cernd threatens to accuse him of Galia's murder, Deril will laugh, saying he can buy the guards off whenever he needs to.
Smug Snake: Cernd might be kind of vapid and a touch too "holier than thou", but Deril is so smug and smarmy that he looks far worse than Cernd does.

The Unseeing Eye

A very powerful beholder who sets up a cult under the Temple District's sewers.

A God Am I: Convinces his followers of this.
Boss in Mook's Clothing: He has the same sprite as a regular beholder, but is much stronger.
Cult: Verging on Church of Happyology.
Eye Scream: Entry to his cult demands this. Text implies that the Unseeing Eye may be not only an Elder Tyrant^note, but also a Beholder Mage^note, which is probably where it got the theme idea from. Fortunately, its stats don't back up this take.
Scam Religion: Of a sort. He has convinced his followers that all other gods are false, except him, while himself isn't.

Other Villains

Rejiek Hidesman

Voiced by: Charlie Adler

A tanner who is secretly murdering people and trying to create a magical suit of armor made of human skin.

Face Stealer: He's a skin dancer, a horrifying creature that can wear the skin of others.
Serial Killer: Your investigation into the murders in Athkatla's Theater District ultimately leads to him.
Tear Off Your Face: And the rest of your skin, and then wear them, or, in Reijek's case, make them into a suit of armor.
Viral Transformation: He has this power, and uses it to turn an innocent girl in Trademeet into a skinwalker like himself.

Pirate Lord Desharik

The de facto ruler of Brynnlaw. One way to get into Spellhold is to convince him to admit you in.

Deadpan Snarker: Is especially memorable for his reaction to Minsc, and is skeptical at first if Charname tries to convince him they're nuts.
Charname: I must be confined. I can feel myself losing my grip on reality.
Desharik: And this makes you a threat to yourself? I know a great deal of people that do not know their arse from a hole in the ground. They function reasonably well.
Pirate King: And for all intents and purposes the actual king of the island, with a manor and everything.

King Ixilthetocal

Voiced by: Frank Welker

The mad king of the sahuagin.

The Caligula: Though it's hard a little hard to pinpoint exactly what the sahuagin would consider excess or depravity, at the very least he's demonstrably insane.
Laughing Mad: Giggles as he casually orders the execution of random underlings.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has four arms, common among sahuagin nobles.

Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal Antagonists

Gromnir Il-Khan

"Haha! Good fun!"

Voiced by: Jim Cummings

A bloodthirsty and paranoid half-orc who rules Saradush with an iron fist, he's afraid of Yaga-Shura's army destroying his city, a fear that is not unjustified. He's a terrible leader who leaves the military to its own devices, not particularly intelligent, and in charge primarily because of his Bhaalspawn heritage making him strong enough to intimidate anyone more suited than him for leadership into backing off. Part of the early Saradush story involves removing him from power... permanently.

Cassandra Truth: He basically explains Melissan's entire plan as soon as you meet him, proving that despite being an idiot, he's still smarter than the entire rest of ToB's cast besides Balthazar. No one, including the player character, listens to him.
- Subverted with the Wheels of Procesy Mod from the Gibberlings 3 Modding Community, which allows you and your party to take Gromnir's warnings into account and use them.
Chaotic Evil In-Universe.
Epic Flail: His weapon of choice.
Evil Former Friend: Gromnir is from the same tribe as Dorn Il-Khan, a companion added in the Enhanced Edition. Dorn explains that they were both effectively outcasts due to their human heritage, but Gromnir's savagery and depravity would prove too much even for the orcs. Eventually, the orcs invoked Even Evil Has Standards and cast him out.
General Ripper: He's no less evil than Yaga-Shura, and his soldiers are harrassing the civilians, causing many to call for his death.
Half-Human Hybrid: Half human, half orc.
Our Orcs Are Different: Well, actually he's a half-orc, but yeah.
Properly Paranoid: As noted, his mad ravings regarding Melissan turned out to be correct.
Shout-Out: To a frequent poster on Bioware's forums at the time, with the line "Ha! Good fun!" being that poster's forum signature.

The Master Wraith

"You... you resist me?! Oh, very cunning! Hehehehe... it will be a pleasure to feast on your god-child soul!"

— The only thing the Master Wraith says in-character

Voiced by: Jim Cummings

An undead creature who wants to eat CHARNAME's soul, this shifty figure lurks in the abandoned temple of Bhaal in the Forest of Mir, where he will put the player and their loved ones through a level of emotional torment not even Irenicus managed to achieve.

Beneath the Mask: As shown by the above quote, once the player resists enough the Wraith abandons all pretense, summons some backup and attacks.
Break Them by Talking: The whole purpose of the Master Wraith's appearance is to break the spirit of the party by making them feel like crap, with the assumed intention of consuming their souls when they're down. Depending on party buildup and choice of love interest, he can end up doing this to four party members at once.
- He appears as Gorion to tell CHARNAME that, among other transgressions, they murdered him: not by wielding the weapon themselves but by sowing a trail of death and destruction despite him raising them to be a force of good. The player can express sad denial or angry retorts or even indifference to Gorion, depending on player choices.
- If you brought Sarevok along, the not-Gorion will growl that he is an animal and a slave to ambition, who you for some reason raised from the dead and brought along as a comrade. Sarevok angrily snarls that he killed Gorion before and the old man had better not tempt him to repeat history.
Sarevok: Beware, old man. You were in my way once. Do not tempt me a second time.
- If Imoen is with you, the not-Gorion expresses similar disappointment that she became an accessory to your supposed (or actual) evil. A tearful Imoen pleads with the not-Gorion to stop.
Imoen: No! No, Gorion, don't say these things! Please!
- Your love interest will suffer the worst blows, as the wraith summons an illusion of a past relative or associate to give them a similarly heart-rending treatment.
  - Aerie is confronted by an image of her mother Rayanna, who claims to have come looking for her daughter and been killed by wizards, who wanted her wings for spells. She accuses Aerie of causing her death by going missing and thus putting her mother in that position. Aerie bursts into tears and begs CHARNAME to make it stop.
  - Anomen is met by his sister Moira, who lambastes him for not avenging her death, saying it's as bad as if he wielded the weapon himself. Anomen's normally stoic visage audibly cracks.
  - Dorn is tormented by a vision of his ex-lover Kryll, who was one of his former mercenary companions who left him to rot in Luskan. She mocks him for actually killing her, stating that he sent the only person who saw past his orcish heritage to Ur-Gothoz' embrace and had he not simply killed her in the moment, she would have explained how she was against Simmeon's plan and could have helped him (probably Blatant Lies). Dorn initially brushes her off, asserting that she got what she deserved, but at the thought that she might not have betrayed him willingly he is overcome with guilt. He gets past it afterwards.
  - Hexxat meets her aunt Daxxii. Daxxii attempts to convince Hexxat she was a little terror who drove her mother away. Unlike the others, Hexxat simply asks in confusion why she would say such a thing when the truth is readily apparent.
  - In a particularly heart-rending moment, Jaheira's husband Khalid comes back to haunt her. In fact, Gorion's supposed reappearance hurts her too but Khalid's phantom yells at her for her romance with CHARNAME, not only because chronologically she started a relationship with him not especially long after her husband's death but because of how seemingly ready she was to move on to another man. Even after the battle Jaheira suggests that despite knowing it wasn't real, the encounter was especially upsetting for her.
  - Neera's ex-boyfriend Avrum is the one to take a swing at her, hinting he may have been Driven to Suicide by her abandonment and suggesting that since she left because of her fear of love with no regard for his feelings, deep down she doesn't care about anyone but herself. Neera is, for the first time, shocked speechless, and her guilt is readily apparent.
  - Although it would be expected for Rasaad to be sniped at by his brother Gamaz, that dubious honour is actually given to their father, Raheed. He states that Rasaad and Gamaz murdered him by him by driving him to earn a living for his family in the arena, which would eventually kill him. Rasaad's protests that they were children and thus helpless do not sway the ghost, who somehow still manages to make Rasaad feel bad.
  - Viconia is forced into a faux-reunion with her brother Valas. He yells at her that after she fled the Underdark he became a drider and lived in suffering until his death because she left him behind. Although Viconia asserts that she wanted to save him but had no chance to, her brother sneers that she could have; she simply chose not to. It's one of the few times Viconia is reduced to tears.
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: By all means, you didn't expect this guy to appear when you're busy trying to figure out how to stop Yaga-Shura, did you?
Jerkass Has a Point: If CHARNAME is evil and has a fitting reputation level, then of course the Wraith is absolutely right about them. It has no real impact on the game, but still.
Kick the Dog: Besides breaking them in order to become easy prey, it's evident that the wraith enjoys tormenting its victims, as it keeps guilt tripping them even after they've bursted into tears.
Stupidity Is the Only Option: Even though the Wraith is at least the second being CHARNAME's met that's tried a Shape Shifter Guilt Trip on him/her (and in Gorion's form, no less!) at no point in the conversation are you allowed to just leave the dialogue or respond to its lambastings with a Talk to the Fist.
- Mind Rape: it implied that the Wraith was doing a lot more than just talking; likely using a very powerful enchantment or illusion of some sort to see into their minds and addle their thoughts (which would explain how it was able to imitate Gorion and the others). With a high enough WIS score your character can resist it to a degree, but not enough to shake it off or prevent it from affecting the other party members.

Enhanced Edition Antagonists

Alorgoth

Appears in Baldur's Gate. A charismatic and cunning priest of the Dark Moon cult. Alorgoth was responsible for the death of Rasaad's brother back in Baldur's Gate. After that, he adopted the name of 'Collus Darathon' and set up the Bright Moon cult for a dual purpose: to mine the secrets of wavering Sun Soul worshippers, and to ferret out any weak Dark Moon cultists who were susceptible to heresy and thus needed to be purged. Once he's gained all he can from the scheme, he leads an army of Dark Moon worshippers to slaughter everyone who joined the cult. He subsequently conquered the Deepstone Clanhold, where the Deepstone dwarves live, and enslaved the inhabitants in an effort to summon forth an invincible army of shades.

Joker Immunity: Even though he's trapped in the shade world, Rasaad's epilogue reveals that he somehow managed to survive and escape.
Karma Houdini: He certainly suffers in the shade world, but he does ultimately survive the series, unlike virtually every other villain in the games. This means that Rasaad never gets his revenge on him.

Vicross

A Red Wizard of Thay who is leading the Order of the Eight Staves. She sends agents to pursue Neera so they can dissect her and learn about wild magic. However, it turns out that she's more familiar with wild magic than she lets on...

You Are What You Hate: She is also a wild mage, and she knows she's screwed once the other Red Wizards find out about this.

Szass Tam

An extremely powerful lich and one of the rulers of Thay. He enlists the party to deal with Vicross, but it's fairly obvious he can't be trusted. He also seems to be involved with the local gladiatorial arena.

The Man Behind the Man: Turns out to be Dennaton's secret patron.
Obvious Judas: As an evil lich whose first appearance is asking the party to kill one of his minions, it's not very surprising he would attempt to kill the party after they finish his quest.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He does this to pretty much all of his minions in the game, including Vicross and Dennaton. He tries to do it to the party as well.

Larloch

Another very powerful lich. He is Hexxat's boss and he orders her to raid tombs in order to retrieve treasure for him.

Bad Boss: If his minions fail, he just abandons them to die or become undead monsters.

Dorotea, Senjak, Kryll, and Simmeon

Appears in Baldur's Gate. An adventuring party turned bandit group, who Dorn joined up with at some point after leaving his tribe. They had a good run, with Dorn even forming a relationship with another member named Kryll, before one fateful day in a village called Barrow. They slaughtered everyone in it — Dorn claims it was a warning to some lords who didn't take kindly to their presence, but it's unclear if we can take him seriously given the kind of guy he is. The other four eventually turned on Dorn, leaving him for dead and to take all the blame for the attack. Their betrayal was a major motive in Dorn pledging his soul to Ur-Gothoz so he could escape prison to seek his revenge on them.

The group broke up and went their separate ways after leaving Dorn behind. Dorn's personal quest in the first game involves hunting them all down and eliminating them.

Asshole Victim: No matter how evil Dorn is by the time he meets them again, they all deserve what they get.
Bandit Clan: Senjak and Dorotea appear to have set one up since the group fell apart.
Big Bad: Simmeon. He was the one that lead the massacre and decided to betray Dorn while the others went with it. He's the last we encounter in-game and is fittingly the most powerful.
Black Knight: After learning that Dorn is on the trail, Simmeon had himself turned into a Blackguard in hopes to save his own skin.
Dirty Coward: Senjak and Dorotea (especially Dorotea) who tries to hide behind the Just Following Orders excuse when Dorn confronts them and start pointing at each other when that doesn't work. Dorn is disgusted by this.
Dorn: You are both mewling cowards, turning on each other as easily as you turned on me.
Disc-One Nuke: Dorotea is wearing Plate Armour when you catch her — a very powerful piece of equipment, given that she's intended to be fought in chapter 2 or so.
Fantastic Racism: Senjak is screamingly racist against Dorn. For his part, Dorn hints they all had this to some extent, Senjak just being the most vocal about it.
Faux Affably Evil: Senjak and Dorotea. Senjak politely greets you and Dorotea suggests killing you last because you displayed "such good manners". When Dorn show up, Senjak drops all pretences while Dorotea tries to sweet-talk Dorn.
The Fellowship Has Ended: Senjak and Dorotea have stuck together because they're an item, but other than that they've all gone their separate ways and are in no way involved in each other's plans.
Half-Truth: Dorn opines that Dorotea and Kryll are telling the truth when they say the betrayal was Simmeon's idea but that their claims of not wanting any part of it were baloney they just made up to try and sweet-talk their way out of trouble.
Hate Sink: Dorn is one thing but the entire group are shown to be much more evil and despicable than him. Kryll at least displays some ambiguity on whether or not she actually loved Dorn prior to the betrayal, but even that rings hollow as she went along with the betrayal and doesn't even apologize to Dorn. Senjak and Dorotea are egregiously Faux Affably Evil and backstabbing cowards to boot. And Simmeon was the one behind the massacre and betrayed Dorn most likely because to Fantastic Racism. In-game he has himself turned into a Blackguard, one of the most evil classes in the setting in hopes to save his own worthless hide.
Just Following Orders: Dorotea tries this card to save herself from Dorn, saying that it's Simmeon he wants, not her and Senjak. Dorn bluntly rebukes the excuse.
Dorn: "Just following orders" is an coward's excuse, Dorotea!
Necromancer: Kryll was the group's magician specializing in this. She's seen killing charmed civilians and raising them when Dorn confronts her.
The Vamp: Kryll seduced many ordinary men away from their wives so she could kill them and make them her minions. You can wind up talking to the wife of one of her victims when she asks you to find her husband, and Dorn deduces that it's Kryll's work.
Shout-Out: Dorotea and Senjack derive some of their behavior from Dorotea Senjack and her sister/lieutenant Soulcatcher in the novels The Black Company.

Ur-Gothoz

First mentioned in Baldur's Gate. Dorn's demon patron. When he pushes Dorn too far with increasingly dangerous missions, Dorn rebels with the support of Azothet and strives to destroy him.

Azothet

A rival to Ur-Gothoz. Dorn must choose which of them to kill during a mission.

Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Surprisingly averted. If Dorn kills Ur-Gothoz at her behest, Azothet grants him the same blackguard powers that he used to have from Ur-Gothoz.

The Black Pits Antagonists

Baeloth the Entertainer

See Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Editions Party Members.

The Contestants

Elan Garaq

A rakshasa selling cloaks, robes, belts, and gauntlets to Baeloth's enslaved gladiators. Unlike most of the other vendors, he is not a slave but instead is there by choice and is eager to see the gladiators die. When the party proves stronger than anticipated, he volunteers to help Baeloth slay the party in the arena.

Jerkass: In contrast to most of the vendors, who are either friendly to the party at first or warm up over time, Elan openly hates the gladiators. He fantasizes about their brutal deaths, and he grows angrier and angrier as they continue to survive everything Baeloth throws at them. He's just a jerk.
Shout-Out: To Elim Garak, the Cardassian tailor from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Thardek

A duergar who sold out his clan to Baeloth. In exchange for information on the clan's defenses, Baeloth offered to spare his life, and Thardek accepted. He winds up selling weapons to the gladiators alongside the other survivors of his people, but after he is exposed he erupts in anger and decides to help kill the gladiators alongside Baeloth and Elan.

Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: He sold out his people and clan, but Baeloth enslaves him anyways, seemingly heedless of his welfare after he's of no more use to the drow.

Krancor the Old

Leader of a group of adventurers that was captured by Baeloth, and the boss of the first tier.

Scatterbrained Senior: Doesn't seem to be fully aware of what's going on, and even asks the player's party to deliver a birthday note to someone named Aluend (who isn't in the arena and whom the party, on account of being enslaved, have no way of reaching).
Tom the Dark Lord: His epithet is an obvious case, but even his name itself ('Krancor') is hardly intimidating.

Thespia

Leader of a party of Red Wizards that was captured by Baeloth, and the boss of the second tier.

Noble Demon: Respects the party's skill and even says, upon learning that her team will be facing the party next, that she relishes the chance to face someone worthy.

Hogarl

A powerful fire giant, and the boss of the third tier.

Ground Pound: One of his primary attacks, and a very lethal one. He even tries it while trapped in a holding cell, succeeding in shaking the entire arena.

Ghlouralk

A beholder whom Baeloth keeps as his ultimate trump card to finish off gladiators that cannot be dealt with any other way. Wanting his freedom, he allies with the player's party and gives them advice to get through all of their other matches—because he knows that if the party survives Baeloth will eventually offer him, Ghlouralk, his freedom in exchange for killing them.

The Dragon: Serves as Baeloth's most powerful champion.
Enemy Mine: He and the party both know they will ultimately go up against each other, but he still helps the party before that in order to advance his own agenda.

The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay Antagonists

Dennaton

A powerful mage who runs a combat arena in Thay. He serves as the primary antagonist of The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay.

I Own This Town: Everyone in his arena is totally under his thumb. If he wants to kill someone he just sics The Winged on him, or assigns him an impossible fight in the arena. He also has total control over the economy; he pays his gladiators what he chooses and then gets all the money back anyways because he owns all the merchants.
Karmic Death: After failing to stop the player's party from escaping, he's killed by Szass Tam with no more mercy or empathy than he gave the enslaved gladiators whom he sent to their deaths in his arena.
Pride: His big problem. He becomes so arrogant that he starts sending his minions after increasingly powerful and difficult-to-contain monsters, to the point where even The Winged and Thassk Kun begin to question his orders. This culminates when he orders them to capture a tarrasque for the player's party to fight; even if the minions had managed to catch the tarrasque and get it back to Thay, the most likely outcome of doing so would have been the destruction of Dennaton's arena and the death of everyone in the vicinity. Fortunately, Dennaton's team realized they couldn't win and fled instead.
Small Name, Big Ego: His diary indicates that he was widely derided as an incompetent mage with barely enough talent to become someone's apprentice. Despite this, he's an egotistical jerk who seems to think that his managing the arena makes him a talent on par with the highest mages of Thay.
Smug Snake: No matter how the party threatens or insults him, he remains as arrogant and bombastic as ever. This ends when the party actually kills Dennaton's team and escapes.
The Unfought: Unlike Baeloth, he's not stupid enough to try attacking the player's party himself. He has his own party for that.

The Winged

Dennaton's chief enforcer, and the strongest of his minions.

The Atoner: In her last moments she begs Torm for forgiveness.
Attack Reflector: The Winged has gauntlets which automatically deal damage to anything that successfully attacks The Winged and is within a 5-foot radius.
Blood Knight: She was a general in the army of Torm (a powerful god), but after giving a bad order and screwing up a battle at Hedasha Gorge, rather than try to correct her mistake she just charged the enemy herself and slaughtered a huge number of demons in her rage.
Court-martialed: Though she killed many enemies in her final battle for Torm, her own forces disintegrated on account of her abandoning them and Torm's side lost the battle. For abandoning her duty and giving in to her zeal for combat instead of obeying orders, she was thrown out of Torm's forces.
Death Seeker: When the player's party finally kills her she expresses relief, saying that everything is over at last.
Greed: She gives off an air of being motivated by this, occasionally complaining to Dennaton that he isn't paying her promptly enough and threatening him if he's late or tries to short her. Tartle also says that she constantly demands more money from Dennaton. Her true motives are likely much more complicated.
Master of All: The Winged's stats range from 18 (the pinnacle of human ability) to 21 (far beyond mere mortal ability) and average 19.
One-Hit Kill: The Winged's sword isn't just a +5 weapon; it also has a percent chance of instantly killing anything that it damages.

Bannor Kaxazel

A drow mage who, under intense pressure from his matron to create a new Super-Soldier, got his mind stuck inside the body of a massive adamantite golem. While this makes him almost impervious to physical harm, it does give him some other vulnerabilities that the party can exploit.

Anti-Climax Boss: He's an absolute beast in combat... unless the party finds a way to craft a spell that lets one of its mages swap bodies with Bannor. This grants the mage access to Bannor's body while trapping Bannor in the (much more frail) body of the mage, which the clever player will have positioned in the middle of the party's melee warriors. Bannor's defeat after that usually only takes a couple of blows.
"Freaky Friday" Flip: Bannor can be defeated this way—simply swap him into a much more frail body and then wreck it.
Mad Scientist: A magical version.
Pride: When his initial experiments failed, Bannor concluded that the drow subjects he were using were just too stupid to handle the transition into another body... so he decided to experiment upon himself, on the grounds that he was smart enough to survive the procedure. Unfortunately, while he did indeed survive, he wasn't smart enough to realize that he needed to create a reversal spell before he adopted the body of a golem which could not use magic.
Professor Guinea Pig: With his test subjects dead and his matron openly threatening to enslave him if he didn't produce immediate results, Bannor resolved to try his body-swapping spell on himself. It worked, although Bannor then found he had no way to reverse the procedure.
Rage Against the Reflection: He has a mirror in his room, but it's been smashed into shards, indicating that he perhaps is no longer fond of his new body.
Super-Soldier: He was tasked with creating one for his matron. He decided that the best route for this was swapping the minds of drow into powerful golems. And he eventually used the process on himself.

Dormamus

An efreeti serving Dennaton.

The Hedonist: Brodle describes him as someone who just loves wealth and power. Additionally, his quarters are luxurious—much more so than the quarters of Dennaton's other minions (which range from completely trashed in Joker's and The Winged's case to spartan in Pol Pyrrus's case) and he has several harem girls.
Kill and Replace: Or 'stick in a bottle and replace' anyways. The party can fight and defeat Dormamus, at which point their ally Najim takes his place so that Dennaton and the rest of his team don't notice. If the party does this, then Dormamus is not a factor in the final battle, and Najim instead helps the party fend off the rest of Dennaton's team.
Shout-Out: To Marvel Comics' hellgod Dormammu.

Thassk Kun

Thask Kun

A high-level fire salamander mage who works for Dennaton.

Captain's Log: He keeps one for Dennaton's team, which details all the creatures they go out and capture, as well as other things which he finds notable—such as Dennaton's increasing megalomania.
The Cynic: His diary indicates a profound skepticism towards the wisdom of Dennaton and his current path in general. He notes that Dennaton's demands are becoming increasingly reckless, and after his group is almost killed by devas seeking revenge on The Winged, he notes that his life may get even more 'exciting' if more monsters from Celestia start coming after them.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despises the other mage on his team, Pol Pyrrus, due in part to having been on opposite sides of him in a rebellion of fire salamanders against their Red Wizard overlords—and losing.

Other Opponents

Joker

A hard-drinking, hard-partying half-elf bard who works for Dennaton. The party can take advantage of her love of alcohol to weaken her before the final battle.

Anti-Climax Boss: She's a powerful warrior—unless the party (and Voghiln the Vast) are able to trick her into drinking poisoned wine. If so, she just stumbles around the final battle in a daze and barely puts up a fight before being cut down.

Pol Pyrrus

A high-level human Red Wizard who works for Dennaton.

Playing with Fire: He worships Kossuth, the Lord of Flames, and much of his power is fire-based as well.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despises the other mage on his team, Thassk Kun, due in part to Thassk having some kind of blackmail material on him.

Tartle

One of Dennaton's slaves, though he's more loyal than most of the others because he's under the delusion that Dennaton genuinely respects him. If the player's party befriends him he provides hints on how to beat some of the more powerful enemies. However, when the party tries to escape, he puts together a small army and moves to head them off.

Mr. Exposition: After the player's party befriends him, he tells the party who they'll be facing next, and sometimes even gives hints as to how to prepare.

Symm Haximus

See Baldur's Gate: Friends.

Leokas

A lieutenant in the mercenary unit Dennaton uses to guard the arena and prevent slave uprisings.

Dirty Cop: Serves as this. His job is to maintain law and order in the arena, but he is bribable and will even help the player's party kill Dennaton's more loyal guards if the party pays him enough.

Stannel Eibor

See the entry for 'Enhanced Edition Spoilers' in Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Editions Party Members.

Characters / Baldur's Gate: Other Villains

Edit Locked

Tales of the Sword Coast Antagonists

Shandalar

Ice Island mages

Karoug

Kaishas Gan

Selaad Gan

Durlag

The Demon Knight

Aec'letec

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn Antagonists

Phaere Despana

Jarlaxle Baenre

Matron Mother Ardulace

Kangaxx

Lavok

Tolgerias

Terrece

Galvarey

Reviane

Dermin Courtierdale

Kalah

Lord Farthington Roenall

Isaea Roenall

Saerk Farrahd

Yusef Farrahd

Deril

The Unseeing Eye

Rejiek Hidesman

Pirate Lord Desharik

King Ixilthetocal

Baldur's Gate: Throne of Bhaal Antagonists

Gromnir Il-Khan

The Master Wraith

Enhanced Edition Antagonists

Alorgoth

Vicross

Szass Tam

Larloch

Dorotea, Senjak, Kryll, and Simmeon

Ur-Gothoz

Azothet

The Black Pits Antagonists

Elan Garaq

Thardek

Krancor the Old

Thespia

Hogarl

Ghlouralk

The Black Pits II: Gladiators of Thay Antagonists

Dennaton

The Winged

Bannor Kaxazel

Dormamus

Thask Kun

Joker

Pol Pyrrus

Tartle

Symm Haximus

Leokas

Stannel Eibor

Alternative Title(s): Baldurs Gate Main Other Villains

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