Need some advice :)

[Jennifer]

Hello!

Been many years since I played BGII, and I feel I wanna give it a go once again. (NWN2 was just too buggy to play for me ...) However I would like some advice, on what mods etc to DL, to avoid bugs etc. Which dls are essential and which are not? Been looking around on the forums and other webpages, and there are just SO many of them ;p

I have SOA + TOB, both patched with the latest patch. (I hope ... It says 26498 on the ToB patch, but no numbers on SoA.) Anyway ...

I want as much out of the game as possible really, so if you can help me with that it would be awesome!

/Thanks in advance, Jen.

[Jennifer]

Ok, fixed some mods etc and I'm ready to go ...

Thinking of this setup:
- Keldorn (He's just so good)
- Viconia (Want a cleric)
- Edwin (Fun mage)
- Jan (Theif and some extra spellcasting)
- Minsc (Fav NPC ever!)
- Me (Havn't decided yet actually, suggestions? Probably a fighter.

Want a little mixture of evil, good, and neutral characters for some
fighting in the party, but will it work, or will just kill eachother or leave?


/Jen

[galraen]

I understand that Keldorn and Vici in the same party are problematic, never occurred to me to mix potassium and water, but hey, it made a good bang in the lab!

[Sir_Carnifex]

Minsc and Edwin in the same party will result in a lot of friction just like the Viconia/Keldorn combo. There ARE ways to keep them from fighting, but I won't give that away right now.

As for must-have mods, you should definitely have Unfinished Business and Quest Pack.

[anarchistica]

Keldorn might kill Viconia, and he and Minsc might kill Edwin.

Other than that, look at your setup:

Keldorn: High damage, anti-magic.
Viconia: Pure cleric, low AC, magic resistance.
Edwin: Pure specialist mage+.
Jan: Pure enough thief and nice specialist mage.
Minsc: High damage, semi-useful berserk.

You got the thief, the healer, 2,25 wizards (Edwin counts for 1,50, Jan for 0,75) and the high-damage two-handed wielder. All you really lack is a tank and a dual-wielder.

Viconia can tank somewhat, but she has poor HP and has spells you don't want to get interrupted. It's also problematic that she is the party cleric as well, since you would want the cleric to be a seperate person who can heal the tank.

Minsc can dual-wield as a ranger, but to be really useful you'd have to change his proficiencies in ShadowKeeper (i did this myself). Assuming you do, you have to divide the best weapons between him and your character. Your character should than be the tank. Any warrior will do, as will the blade, the swashbuckler, fighter/anything, the shapeshifter druid, and a number of custom kits (click on the link in my sig).

You can also drop Minsc for a NPC tank. Jaheira, Mazzy, Korgan. Or, if you want to have someone capable of destroying the entire Beholder Hive, Mindflayer Lair and Ku-Toa Hangout, try Cernd with a mod that actually gives him the abilities of a greater werewolf (huge resists, low AC, regenerates fast).

[Nightmare]

For must have downloads, you need the G3 Fixpack (incorporates all the bug fixes you'll need). I would certainly recommend downloading Ascension as well, as it makes the end of ToB better. Also the G3 Tweakpack is great as it streamlines parts of the game.

I would recommend using a character that will dual-wield longswords/katanas. Dualing Daystar and Celestial Fury is fun.

[Jennifer]

I have all the mods you all mentioned Which is great.

I tried the first boss lady in ToB, just now with Ascension ;p Even took some items from CLUA ... Died in, like what? 5 seconds :/ But I love a challange.

Still trying to puzzle together a party, but seems like they'll just kill eachother ... Havn't decided wether I should go with a good or evil based group yet, probably evil ... Any suggestions on a setup there?

Thinking:

Me: Pure fighter, if that's any good.
Korgan: I love greedy dwarves.
Edwin: Mage
Viconia: Cleric
Jan: Mage/Theif

That makes it 5, so one spot left ... But any need for another spot? This gives me more exp doesnt it?

[kmonster]

There's a mod which keeps party members from killing each other or leaving because of reputation issues.

You don't need more than 5 party members, you don't even need more than 1. With a small party you can pick up other NPCs temporary to do their quests if you want. I'd keep the 6th spot open for the NPC you meet at the start of ToB, he fits best into an evil party.

[Jennifer]

Ok, thanks. Btw I have Ascension and just installed Tactics, but won't there be a conflict there?

On Tactic's Improved Irenicus it says:
"...harder than the normal end of ToB but easier than the end
of Ascension."

Thinking of playing an Anti-Paladin btw, but will I be able to use that sword from Firekraag?

[anarchistica]

Weimer's Anti-Paladin? That's a fighter, so no.

[Jennifer]

Ok, I've decided to go with this:
-Edwin
-Viconia
-Korgan
-Jan
-Sarevok (When avalible)
-Me, pure fighter with longswords and katanas. Or maybe 2h? Whats best?
And any kit I should prefer instead?

[anarchistica]

Well, you could try the Blackguard, Anti-Paladin, Death Knight, Blade Master, Duellist, Fist of Order, etc.

[Sereth1728]

Hey, some good mods I use which I think you might like are mostly at Pocketplane.com

Here they are:

-Virtue. It helps with anyone that wants to go with an evil go through the game as it separates reputation from virtue. If you do bad things your virtue goes down, you do good things, vice versa.

-Assassinations. Ok this mod is probably the best mod for any evil character, especially anyone who wants to play a shadowy role in the game. It also fits the Bhaal heritage very well, since Bhaal was an assassin.

-Dungeon Crawl. This mod is great because you can beat it right when you get out of Irenicus dungeon (at least I did.) It's kind of funny and at the same time there are 4 new areas as well. I will be honest though, if you want to beat it and have fun, gain a few lvls for ur party because most of the time you have fight some pretty crazy creatures (Bone Golems especially).

Other than that I would mostly suggest almost all of the mods from Pocketplane.com but that's just me. You might also enjoy unfinished business as well. Keep in mind alot of the things I mentioned about the above mods, I really don't know how it will work for you with a party mainly because I play solo. So just keep that in mind.