So as you may know, Rolan has a few self-named spells. Did you know that his spells actually have unique effects that distinguish them from the regular versions of the spells?
Attached below are Rolan's version compared to the regular version.
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Magic Missile: Shoot 3 magical darts, each dealing 2-5 force damage. They always hit their target.
Rolan's Magic Missile: Hurl a concentrated dart of magical force that can Daze (3 turns) the target. This spell never misses.
Thunderwave: Release a wave of thunderous force that pushes away all creatures and objects.
Rolan's Thunderwave: Release a focused blast of thunderous force that pushes targets back 12m and knocks them Prone.
Colour Spray: Blind creatures up to a combined 33 hit points.
Rolan's Colour Spray: Create an illustrious display of flashing lights to dazzle and Confuse creatures up to a combined 44 hit points.
Mage Armor: Protect a target from attacks: increase its Armour Class to 13 + its Dexterity modifier.
Rolan's Mage Armor: Grant a creature a rudimentary defensive boost, increasing its Armour Class by 2.
Facts about Rolan you might have missed, while you were busy saving the world
Spoilers for Baldurās Gate 3 below!
Hereās a collection of some Rolan facts you may have missed during your playthrough. (These are all from memory, so I will edit this later with sources and exact quotes.)
He is not related by blood to Cal and Lia - You can find this information by speaking with his corpse. All three of them consider each other family, but Rolan seems to hold some insecurities about his position with his siblings. In the same conversation, he mentions having āno oneā when asked if he has family and that he identifies as āRolan, just Rolanā - potentially implying that heās been abandoned or rejected by his blood family, if theyāre alive.
Cal considers Rolan an older brother - If Rolan dies during his rescue attempt in Act 2, Cal confesses that Rolan is his āolder brotherā and āthe person he looks up to the mostā.
Rolan loves organizing things - He has overhead dialogue with his siblings where he jokes about wanting an organized, color-coded sock drawer.
You can try to convince Rolan to leave his siblings behind at the grove - Try to convince him to leave Lia behind, and he will admit sheās a pain sometimes, but he could never leave her, not even for his prestigious apprenticeship.
Rolanās diary changes depending on if his siblings live or die - Self-explanatory. He obviously becomes much more depressed and angry if you fail to save his siblings.
Rolan and his siblings have known each other since Cal was at least eight - They have overhead dialogue where Cal mentions that, when he was eight, Rolan once conjured a cat for him, only for him to find out it was made of fire.
Itās implied that Rolan, Cal, and Lia share a mother figure - If Lia dies, Cal has dialogue with Rolan about throwing a party in memorial for her, ālike [they] did for mumā.
Rolan, Cal, and Lia have unique dialogue depending on which of them die - This is self-explanatory, but you can see most of the scenes here. He also appears to have unique dialogue coded in act 3 depending on if heās angry with you or not (if you disrespected Cal and Liaās memories by calling them Carl and Liam), but I havenāt been able to trigger it yet.
Lorroakan hates to admit it, but Rolan is more powerful than him - Speak with Lorroakanās corpse after killing him and having Rolan side with you. He will begrudgingly admit that his apprentice is more powerful than him. Side note, it can be implied that Lorroakan never calls Rolan by his name, as he defaults to ātieflingā or āboyā in their few interactions.
If Rolan has a high enough initiative in the Lorroakan fight, he will use Thunderwave to shove Lorroakan off the tower. Peak revenge.
Some of Rolanās spells have his name in front of them (Rolanās Thunderwave, Rolanās Mage Armor) - Some people have headcannoned this as meaning he had to learn magic by himself, therefore being a Sorcerer. Considering his clothes are a unique color combination for the Sorcerer robes, it raises more than a few questions
Rolan always carries Lorroakanās letter on him - This one always makes me so sad, pointed out by @sadwizardlover. Throughout the game, the one thing Rolan always carries on his person is the written response from Lorroakan to his letter, posted below.
Lorroakan also beats Rolan upš He'll only admit this if Lorroakan's dead though
Thatās all! If anyone has any more to add to this list, shoot me an askāØš
Astarion walking into the fight with Cazador, skin glowy and moisturized, recently fed off of thinking blood, hair freshly curly girl-routined, surrounded by friends who love him whether he likes it or not (one of them on fire... several of the others in possession of at least 2 different "disentigrate that old man" spells), dressed to the nines in the finest clothes the world has to offer, pockets jangling with the 30k gold and the copious amounts of jewelry we have given him throughout the journey, chapstick: on, four ghouls he summoned with his newly acquired Necromancy of Thay knowledge b-boying along beside of him, big wet kiss mark on his forehead: fuck you!
Cazador, with 2 bucks and cobwebs in his bank account, no steeze, no friends, no real plan of attack except the 8 dudes he found on craigslist, and yet all the audacity in the world: I got this... He has NOTHING ON ME!!!
i like that abdirak is actually a good dom.... a goblin low on health gets mad that he wont continue saying "I can take it!" but he flat out refuses until the goblin is healed, if you don't put up a "show" it reads off as disinterest or inability to continue so he stops. if you are downed by him or otherwise downed before talking to him after, hes genuinely upset at himself. like yeah he uses a fucking MACE (and other things if you read his book) but its a fantasy game, your characters are perfectly capable of being beaten by a mace without dying.
they put a lot of teeny, tiny, unnecessary details in such a small character who never shows up again and i love him. the curse of well written things in ACT 1 that we never get by act 3........ cries
i ALSO love a thing he says; i dont remember how I got the dialogue but he points out like hes telling you a secret "you have pain behind your eyes" and if you ask "how did you know?" he leans in close and says "because i have it too"