Tales of the Sword Coast came out this spring. It isn't a new game. You install it right on top of Baldur's Gate, and it adds new places to the same map, new monsters, new magic items, and a lot more experience for your party to earn, because it raises the limit on how high your characters can go. You can take your old saved games into it, too, so I loaded up my archer party from Game 3, who were bored anyway.

It also adds bags and cases to hold your gems, scrolls and potions, and I could have cried. No more juggling inventory in the middle of a dungeon. There are no new companions in it, which I was sad about. But the new places are some of the best in the whole game. Here are the two big ones.

When to go: my advice is to wait until you've done most of Chapter 5. The new places are hard, and they're meant for a party that's been around.

A little fishing village up the coast from Baldur's Gate. It looks like nothing much, a few houses and an inn and some sailors standing around. But it's the door to almost everything new in the expansion.

	Talk to everybody in the inn. Some of the people sitting around in there have errands that'll send you to places you can't reach any other way.
	One trip goes by boat to an island full of werewolves. I'm not saying anything else about it except that I spent most of it with my heart pounding, and that it's very, very good.
	Another goes somewhere very cold. Pack accordingly. (You can't actually pack for the weather. It just felt like you should.)

This is the big one. Out past the little halfling village of Gullykin there's a tower that a dwarf hero named Durlag Trollkiller built a long time ago, and something terrible happened there, and he filled the whole place, top to bottom, with traps so that nobody would ever get at what he left inside. It goes up, and then it goes down. And down. And down.

It's the hardest dungeon I've played in any game. It's also the best. Every level is different. There are traps everywhere, there are puzzles, there are riddles, there are things pretending to be people, and there's a sad story underneath all of it that you put together a piece at a time. Andrew and I played it side by side on our two computers one whole Saturday, him with his paladin party and me with my archers, and we called each other back and forth across the room for hints like it was a race. He got farther. I'll never forgive him.

What to bring:

	The best thief you've got. If your thief isn't good at finding traps, don't go. I'm serious. Turn around and come back after she levels up.
	All the healing you can carry, and a cleric with a full set of spells.
	A pencil and paper. For the riddles and the puzzles. I filled four pages.
	A lot of save slots. Save before every door. Save before every lever. Save before you pick anything up. Save before you save.
	Patience. It took me three weekends. It took Andrew two, but he's not in dental hygiene school, so it doesn't count.

The very bottom of the tower is the hardest fight I've had in Baldur's Gate, harder than the end of the main game. I won't tell you what's down there. When you get there, you'll know, and you'll want to have rested first.

Yes. If you loved Baldur's Gate, this is more of the best parts, and Durlag's Tower alone is worth the money. If you haven't finished the main game yet, finish it first, then get this and go back. You'll be glad you saved it.

And then, if you're like me, you'll start a fifth game. I'm thinking an all-thief party. Andrew says that's not a party, that's a crime spree. We'll see.