Mod spotlight: Check the Bodies

• Mod authors: CBisson and King Diamond
• First published: 2004? (not sure)
• Adds content to: BG2 chapters 2 and 6 (in and around Athkatla).

Check the Bodies is a mega-mod from the early years of BG2 modding.

It suffers from the same problems as other mods of that category: Quantity over quality, a lack of polish and 'depth', and overpowered loot.

However, a lot of work clearly went into it, and it does add some interesting things. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but if you've run out of other BG2 content to explore and don't care much about game balance, maybe check it out...

It adds the following content:

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Hlondeth is a whole new city with three districts, about a seven day's march east of Athkatla (first accessible in chapter 2). The content density is much lower than in Athkatla, though: In total there are two quests, one puzzle, a few shops/inns/temples, and one (oversized and repetitive) dungeon – the rest is homes of no-name townspeople.

What you can do, though, is go through all the houses and loot all their shelves and chests, which (ridiculously) contain plenty of +3 magical weapons and armor. Even some barrels on the side of the road have good magical equipment!
(Of all the mods that add overpowered loot, this is one of the worst offenders because you don't need to fight or even enter any hostile area to get it, you could just travel to Hlondeth right after Irenicus' Dungeon and stock up!)

The area art is nice though (I don't recognize where it comes from), and the quests aren't half bad. I also liked the herbs (consumables with useful temporary effects) sold in one of the stores:






The Academy of Kuldin is a large dungon (first accessible in chapter 2), which reuses the area backgrounds of IWD1's "Severed Hand" tower – but doesn't do them justice. It suffers from:

• Repetitive monster placement. (Basically just 2 monster types carelessly copy & pasted all over the place, though which two types you get depends on your level.)
• Absence of dialog, a story, or a fleshed-out backstory.

All in all, the original Severed Hand was a much better dungeon.

Nonetheless, I found my run through the Academy of Kuldin memorable, because an undedectable trap did something... unexpected and scary to my party, and instead of reloading I just went with it, and that ended up being a challenging new experience.

Another neat thing is that you can find IWD2 spell scrolls:

Other loot includes lots of normal BG2 spell scrolls (including high-level ones), and +3 equipment.





The Ancient Library is a secret and heavily-guarded underground library (first accessible in chapter 2), using area art from IWD2. If you enjoy fighting against many spellcasters in narrow corridors, this is for you!

The many, many books which can be looted from the shelves include lore books from the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games, humorous fan creations like "Fifty Ways To Kill Your Kangaxx", as well as tomes which give permanent or temporary bonuses. I liked the large variety of book icons used:


Speaking of overpowered loot, the Drow equipment you pick up here doesn't disintegrate when you bring it back up to the surface of chapter 2.




This is billed as the "class super quests" in the mod's README, and is first accessible in chapter 6. There are different versions of the quest for different classes. You can only do one version, and you need a party member of the class in question (single-, dual- or multi-class) – but it doesn't have to be CHARNAME. (Note that the party member in question will get permanent bonuses as a reward.)

I did the Mage version, and found it pretty uninspired: Deliver this message, kill this generic baddie, forge this item, the end. It reused an area from BG1's "Durlag's Tower", and left some of the original content in there, which was weird. Also, the boss fight was bugged.




Besides the above, Check the Bodies adds about twenty additional side-quests in and around Athkatla (most of them are accessible in chapter 2; some only in later chapters). They range from short encounters to quests that lead you to new areas. The quality also varies: Some are fun, others feel unfinished or just annoying.




Candlekeep Chores is an infamous optional component which causes CHARNAME, in Irenicus' Dungeon at the start of the game, to have a flashback to his or her earlier life in Candlekeep. You have to complete several days of boring chores, at the end of which CHARNAME gets some permanent bonuses.

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• Mod spotlight: Planar Sphere Mod