I have now completed BG2 SOA + TOB twice with the following 2 parties:
PC - LG Monk, Minsc, Jahiera, Aerie, Keldorn, Yoshi/Imoen. Romance: none
Mods: TOB Patch, Unfinished business, banterpack

PC - NE Sorcerer, Korgan, Edwin, Viconia, Haer'dalis/Sarevok, Yoshi/Imoen. Romance: Viconia
Mods: TOB Patch, Ascension

The second time through i found the SOA portion of the game to be far too easy after chapter 3 and the quests were all too familiar. I felt like it was just a rehash of game no.1. Then, whilst reading the mod reviews on SP i found Tactics! Sounded like just what i needed. I do want to play BG2 again but this time i want to make sure of a few key points: i want a party of characters i haven't really used before, i want a harder game, and i want different quests, dialogues and rewards (items) where possible.
With this in mind i decided on the following setup-

PC - ??, Kelsey, Keto, Jan, ??, ??
Mods (in install order): BG2 SOA + TOB, TOB Patch, TOB SP fixpack, Baldurdash fixpack, Ascension, Redemption, Tactics (?), Unfinished business, Check the bodies (?), Banterpack, Quest pack, Item Upgrade, Underrepresented items, Keto, Kelsey.

What I'm looking for is advice on how (if!) this game will work, specifically:
Mods: am i using too many? is this install order correct? will there be any known conflicts? Will these mods give me a harder game with different quests? Are there any other mods you would recommend? I've read bad things about a few tactics modules (Imp Ilyich, Small teeth pass), does anyone have recommendations/warnings? Also, check the bodies is kind of a "mega mod" (its big!), will it likely cause conflicts with other mods?
Party: given the NPC's i have stated, which other NPC's will best help me? Will i need to what PC do you recommend (given this is a Tactics game)? I didnt't romance anyone on my first play as they all died, were petrified etc. multiple times before i heard that would break them. is it worth playing through with the Jahiera/Aerie Romance?
Gameplay: do you recommend rushing to spellhold or will Imp. Sahuagin City mangle me? If i do all the quests first will it be too easy? Does Tactics beef up all the encounters or just certain key battles?
Mucho thanks in advance to anyone who replies to this post!

If anything's going to give you problems it's going to be Check the Bodies. I would wait to install that last, if at all.

As for Tactics, it depends what options you choose. Some generally make all spellcasters more powerful, others simply boost specific fights. Read the instructions and don't simply accept "install all", go the long way and consider each option.

Is check the bodies known to be buggy, or does it just affect a lot of variables? i won't install it if there's a good chance the game will be broken...

A bit of both - it makes a lot of changes, and I don't know if they will play well with other mods. I'd go with JC and either install last or not at all.

SP Fixpack will cause a lot of problems, as it's SoA-only and incompatible with Baldurdash to boot. :)

CtB does seem to have its share of errors, and v1 of Quest Pack is a bit shaky as well. Though it's rather silly, G3 Anniversary is another quest mod. One other item you may want to try is Sim's Experience fixer--you can use it to lower the XP you get from all quests and monsters in the game, making you level up slower for a greater challenge.

Oh no. Not the G3Anniversary! Targos revisited is more like it :shake:
Who ever came up with the Chiwisi(sp?) part should die :p Poor Korgan is in tears. He went into a shock once we got the quest reward. He had been drinking all his life and that never got him anywhere before.

@ Camdawg: So... no SP fixpack then! Will Tactics + Lower xp = impossible game? i want it hard but not 30+ reload on one battle hard!

Hmmm... i wanted to try CtB as it seems to offer loads of new content. any idea's which mods it will likely confilct with? (i.e. Ascension is all TOB and CtB is no TOB content so not likely to be a problem there)

@Shrikant
Hehe.

@The_Swordalizer
You can choose how much you want to lower XP. For example, shaving off 10% should add a bit of difficulty without making it impossible I think.

I might try 10% off. levelling up slower in TOB would be nice - it seems you gain millions of xp for doing things you got 100xp for in BG1. i was like "if i got this the first time i did it i'd have eaten irenicus for breakfast"! :) what order would you suggest installing the mod?

Is the G3 mod just a load of injokes? i wouldn't like to go through the game not getting anything. "oh look its a wierd character saying some random things. that'd be really funny if i knew what he was on about" :p

The G3 mod does not require any knowledge of G3 modders. :)

The characters are named after us, yes - but the quest itself doesn't have injokes as such, and doesn't break with the game setting. It's just a bit of a silly quest (it revolves around visiting pubs).

Will the G3 mod conflict with any of the other mods i'll be using?

Im a bit confused - reading the CtB info it says to install BEFORE all other Weidu mods, but you recommend installing it AFTER. Which is right?

I think G3 Anniversary has some problems with UB. Or may be not.
I had a boat load of mods installed in my last run which ended with G3A and finally UB13. It is entirely possible that I messed up during installation, leading to problems.
The game would crash to the desktop on two occasions.

@The_Swordalizer: Dont read past this line.


*spoiler*


This happened during the conversation with the halfling who created a new brew and after the thief dropped a 'barrel of bubbling liquid'.

[ March 04, 2005, 19:16: Message edited by: Shrikant ]

G3Anniversary and UB should work fine together... G3A should probably work fine with anything else. ;)

With regards to CtB, I guess JC suggested installing it last because it'd be quicker to remove it if something goes wrong. However, if the ReadMe contradicts that then go with the ReadMe. That's what it is for.

So my new mod order is:
SOA + TOB
TOB Patch
Baldurdash fixpack
Check the bodies
Ascension
Redemption
Tactics
Unfinished business
Banterpack
Item Upgrade
Underrepresented items
Keto
Kelsey
SimDingo's exp fixer
Quest pack

My party will be: Pc - ??(Not decided)/ Keto / Kelsey/ Jan/ Valygar/ Jahiera

Thanks for all the help guys!

Kelsey should be installed before Keto. You should also move Unfinished Business and the Experience Fixer to the end of the list. I would also highly recommend the G3 Tweak Pack: http://www.gibberlings3.net/g3tweak

will the various tweak packs (Baldurdash, G3 etc), work together?

Yes. You can safely install Baldurdash, Ease-of-Use, Ding0Tweaks, and the G3 Tweak Packs. Baldurdash must be installed before any other mods (but after the official patch), then Ease-of-Use somewhere near the top of the WeiDU mods installation, and D0Tweaks and G3Tweaks should be installed as close to the end as possible.

Cheers for that Icelus!

does anyone know when the Quest pack v2 be available? This will be a lot less buggy, apparently.

I think i have decided to leave Check the bodies for this run through. i might try a later run through with just Check the Bodies and 50% exp installed...