Welcome to my Baldur's Gate 2 Speed Run.
Played on normal (Core Rules) with the latest official patch (v. 2.0.23037)

Special thanks to Candace for putting up with me while I gave all my attention to the computer instead of her.
Thanks to DAMURDOC, without his video this never would have happened.

Let's go through exactly how this was done:

Race: Elf
I can only choose between Elf and Half-Elf to get the Mage/Theif Multiclass I'm going for.

Alignment: Neutral Evil
The familiar seems to survive pretty well when I leave him behind.

Stats:

Str:3
Don't need it, I'm getting a belt of 19 strength soon.

Dex:19
Skill points for thief skills.

Con:17
Filler, and more life never hurts.

Int:15
Decent int for spell slots and memorization.

Wis:11
Need 11 wisdom to get shapechange from limited wish.

Cha:18
To talk through a couple situations.

Skill points:
I put everything into Hide in Shadows, because failing a hide really sucks. Later I put more into pickpocketing and detect illusions.

Spells:
The only spells I use are Find Familiar, Shield, Haste, Mirror Image, and Monster Summoning I. The rest is just filler.

• Irenicus's Dungeon:

  I memorize some spells, and skip Imoen's dialog by moving her as soon as we wake up. I followed DAMURDOC's style from here, though I skipped dialog with the concubines by walking around.

  On the second level, I told Yoshimo to leave and used Imoen for haste (I need mine on the surface). I cast shield for some extra armor move against the door. I hop over the wall using the same trick as on the first level of the dungeon. I have Imoen pick up the potion and gem. Everything in her inventory goes to the player when she almost dies or when you hit the surface. The Mirror Image is to take the trap that sometimes goes off on the floor.

• The Surface:

  I use the same underflow trick as DAMURDOC here to get 65535 gems [read: infinite gold].

  My shopping list:

  From Ribald

  • Belt of Stone Giant Strength x 1 (So I can carry items).
  • Ring of Air Control x 3 (Ridiculously overpowered rings. The "Charm Air Elemental" works on just about anything).
  • Protection from Magic x 1 (Very powerful, though I just use it on a vampire to prevent her from casting).
  • Protection from undead x 2 (Very powerful, prevents undead from doing anything to you, even dialog!).
  • Oil of Speed x 3 (Long lasting instant cast haste).

  From Adventuremart spells

  • Symbol Death x 1 (Kill a traitor in the Five Flagons)
  • Limited Wish x 1 (Used to cast shapechange)
  • Flame Arrow x 3 (Used to kill Lassal the Vampire)

  From Spell shop:

  • Lightning bolt x 1 (Kill the other traitor in Five Flagons)
  • Polymorph Self x 1 (Memorized and used to hop walls at several points)
  • Cloudkill x 4 (Kill Irenicus at the Tree of Life)

  I talk to Gaelan Bayle and accept the shadow Thieves' aid.

  An interesting note: you can run out of the building before the second cutscene to skip it entirely. The problem arises when you go to kill Bohdi and get the lanthorne; The Graveyard district hasn't updated. That means no Bohdi, just what you left last time you were there. Going into Gaelan's house at any time triggers the cutscene and the graveyard district returns to normal.

  I talk to Aran Linvail, rest till night, and watch Mook die.

  I go back to Aran, and then hit the bridge district. Here I kill the traitors. One dies from a quick "Symbol: Death" The other takes a carefully placed lightning bolt ricochet. I pickpocket the informant to avoid a fight and leave.

  Then I head south and buy a few supplies:

  • Protection from Magical Weapons x 1
  • Oil of Speed x 7

  I go back to Aran, and hit the Graveyard district. I found through testing that the only vampire that needs to die is Lassal. I Hide in Shadows and move along his dialog. Finally, when he heads upstairs, I use a scroll of Protection from Undead.

  I use a Protection from Magic Tanova, the spellcaster, so she doesn't True Sight away my Mirror Image. I carefully go through and kill Lassal. The reason he doesn't fight back is because of the Protection from Undead. He has one more dialog to go through before becoming hostile. Since I'm protected, he can't talk to me, and he sits on his thumb while I set him on fire. I go stake him and leave. I found you don't have to talk to, much less fight, Bohdi to complete this quest.

  I talk to Aran and I'm on my way to Spellhold.

• Spellhold:

  I quickly pass Saemeon to avoid the vampire ambush and talk my way into Spellhold.

  Here I use the same method as DAMURDOC to skip right to the Underdark. The reason my health goes up here is because of the shapechanging. I'm not sure the exact cause of this, but it has to do with converting current hitpoints with different maximum hit points.

  Once in Underdark, I go to the Sverfneblin village and pickpocket the light gem. I talk to the dragon and turn into a drow, then talk/bribe my way out of the underdark. Thanks to DAMURDOC for this technique.

  I enlist Drizzt to help me kill Bohdi, and head directly for the crypts.

  In the crypts, I stealth to the door and hop over it with shapechange, same as Spellhold. Once downstairs, Drizzt is there but he will not follow. I use my Ring of Air control (Drizzt is an air elemental?) to get him moving. I use the dialog lock bug to prevent Bohdi from summoning any distractions. I wait for her to die, then use my scroll of Protection from Undead. I loot a sword and a scroll of Abi-Dalzim's Horrid Wilting, and stake Bohdi. I hop back over the wall and head to Suldanesellar.

• Suldanesellar:

  I quickly grab the essential items (The Horn and Harp to open the way to the Tree of Life; the Sword, Goblet, and Necklace to summon the guardian and open the doors). I pick up the Time Stop scroll here.

  Once on the Tree of Life, I use my two remaining rings of Air Control to charm the Earth Elemental and Air elemental into fighting their partners. I cast Protection from Magic Weapons to fight the fire elementals, and I use my Horrid Wilting and some Vampiric Touchs to kill them. I backtrack and kill the near death elementals that survived their fights.

  I kill Irenicus with DAMURDOC's line of sight Cloudkill strategy. You have to be in view to initiate the dialog that he dies, so I hop in and out of view.

• Hell:

  Once in hell, I follow DAMURDOC's strategies on the first three rooms. I pickpocket a tear off the genie to save a few seconds of dialog. I use my Limited wish to shapechange, and psionic blast Sarevok. I quickly brain suck him and go to fight Irenicus. I use my Detect Illusion to reveal Irenicus. Once he teleports I timestop and brainsuck him. Thanks to DAMURDOC for the brainsucking strat, would have never killed him without it.

That's it! Thanks for watching!

Email me at Peonuprising AT gmail DOT com.